Economy, order and social control: the maoist case

Abstract

Faced with a mixed civilian population, the action of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can be grasped in the light of collective action. According to its support to the PCC, we can divide up the population into two groups. The first has an interest in the action of the new government which must then prevent the attitude known as "free-riding". The second is unfavourable and the CCP must prevent it to be obstructive. In these conditions how the Chinese leaders can build a new order while enjoying, if not the cooperation, at least the "silence" of the population? Coercion, satisfaction of the interests of a portion of the population and in particular ideology are solutions. Indeed, people can act collectively if they have an interpretative framework, or in other words a common ideology. Various elements of what Lindblom calls "préceptoral system" are implemented. Admittedly, coercion and granting favors are also used to regulate the new order in formation. But it rests essentially on education, persuasion, indoctrination. As the episode of the Great Leap Forward show, ideological incentives replace the traditional economic one that are crystallized in contracts and property rights.Collective action, coercion, incentive, ideology, Great Leap forward