Gun Barrel Politics

Why was the Chinese army during the Maoist era so deeply involved in politics but failed to seize the highest political office? The answer can be found in the system of civil-military dualism, which originates from China's revolutionary history and is maintained by the post-revolutionary party-state. In such a system, military participation in politics is not only normal but required. The party ruled.

Yet it did not do so through military professionalism or organizational control as much as through the integration of military elites into political leadership. Fang Zhu tests the validity of this paradigm in six case studies of intra-party conflicts. Given the potential of the Chinese army to influence political outcomes, the subject of party-army relationship should be of great interest to policymakers as well as students of politics.