Lynn has just published a book on the “Rural Roots of Reform before China’s Conservative Change*, available in either hardcover or paperback. Routledge, the publisher, offers this link at which the full text may be viewed by anyone for a few weeks. The book is dedicated to my students and teachers, including those whom I remember at Thacher.

The argument is that China’s “rise” began in local polities during the early 1970s (before 1978) when new agronomy and the Cultural Revolution allowed rural leaders to control more resources. That era’s localization of power created input shortages for state institutions, leading to inflation and an end of planning for most commodities in the mid-1980s. After 1990, the Party recentralized – and now, Zhongguo (the central state) is more Zhong (centralized) than ever before.

I also wrote an article about “Dictators against Dependence: Albania and Korea,” in the latest issue of “Asian Politics and Policy.”

Lynn White CdeP 1959