In asking big questions about the culture, priorities, and organization of the Chinese Communist Party, Frank N. Pieke delves deeply into a fertile area of study: the party schools in which cadres are trained. Packed with detail and conceptually rich, this book explores how the ideological and professional training that takes place within party schools contributes to the party's state-building efforts. It is at these schools that the party's “neo-socialist governmental discourse” (p. 9) is refined, studied, and, fortunately for China watchers keen on understanding the internal workings of the party, observed by astute outsiders such as Pieke.
He dedicates much of the introduction to discussing and defining neosocialism as a blend of neoliberal market principles, Leninist party organization, modernizing reforms, and party priorities (captured in slogans such as “Three Represents” and “harmonious society”). The thesis Pike presents is that the party's neosocialist agenda is manifest in and disseminated through...
