Organization of Political Power in China

1. Organization of Political Power in China Personalized rule at the top: still true today? Still the top 25 to 35? The PRC Inc. metaphor and the organization of political power at the peak: the elders and the young executives major functional areas and kou (gateway) distribution of members into three layers: key generalists, bridge leaders, and specialized leaders No formal rules define the relationship among the leaders and what they could or could not do; they are above the law and they are the law

2. Mishus and their influence Personal offices and personal secretaries mishus are individuals who are close to the top leaders but are not a part of the bureaucratic system the extra-ordinary power wielded by mishus in Chinese political system top leaders could choose their own mishus with minimum bureaucratic intervention formal bureaucratic ranks of Mishus of top leaders

3. Configurations of Political Power Kou and xitong Kous: not fixed and relative importance of different kous change from time to time four major kous: party affairs, government work, state security, and foreign affairs Kous and leadership small groups

4. Xitong broadly conceived Groupings of bureaucracies that together deal with a broad tasks the top political leaders want performed; sub-kous Six major xitongs: party affairs, organization and personnel, propaganda and education, political and legal affairs, finance and economics, and military. Party/government distinction does not exist in the xitongs most work units contain personnel falling into several of these xitongs

5. Party Affairs xitong Head by by the general secretary of the party responsible for the development of the party organization and ultimate control of the party over policies and political power in the country

6. Organizational affairs xitong To determine who should be appointed to positions of authority and related affairs consists primarily of the organization and personnel department at all levels of the party and government bureaucracies, central functional bureaucracies, and state enterprises

7. Propaganda and education xitong To shape the values and perspectives of the entire population units falling into this xitong include: all print and broadcast media, schools and colleges, and cultural units

8. Political and Legal Affairs xitong In charge of the civilian coercive apparatus, headed by the political and legal affairs commission public security, procuratorate and the judiciary

9. Military xitong Quite separate from the civilian area, and constituting a state-within-the-state leadership exercised through the party’s military affairs commission closer integration with the civilian part after the death of Mao

10. Another meaning of xitong Xitong is a more ubiquitous concept with different scopes tiao (vertical authority) and xitong: each of the functional bureaucracies represent a xitong