maybe the problem is that the intellectuals at the center did not have the means to institute the changes they wanted. They had to order the changes via cadres who were undisciplined and ignorant because the organization had not matured. The cadres went for their own self-serving goals because the organization did not have sufficient safe-guards. But then the intellectuals at the center had little choice but to back the cadres because they didn't have sufficient support outside the organization.
or could it be something else? On 4/7/06, John Gulick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does anyone know of good comparative studies that focus on the following > issue? > > In 1950's China, both land reform and the Great Leap Forward did not come > off exactly as intended by CCP authorities because (among other reasons) > local cadres implemented directives from Beijing too aggressively > (unsanctioned killings of landlords during land reform, e.g.) or too > ambitiously (overnight creation of ill-equipped communes during GLF, e.g.). > > In late 1960's/early 1970's Tanzania, attempts to set up "ujamaa villages" > mostly failed in large part because local functionaries in TANU coerced > livestock farmers and shifting cultivators to settle in the villages, even > though according to Nyerere and his closest advisors the program was > supposed to be voluntary. I am confident that parallel examples can be found > with other ostensibly progressive initiatives in Third World rural > modernization. > > There seems to be a repeated pattern of revolutionary nationalist > intellectuals (of various stripes) launching potentially promising radical > experiments from the center, only to be undermined by some combination of > overzealous/incompetent/corrupt bureaucrats in the provinces. Moreover, > there also appears to be a pattern of disappointed and/or wronged peasants > contrasting the admirable ideals of the center to shoddy implementation in > the provinces when criticizing local functionaries. In some ways this > reminds me of muzhiks in Romanov Russia celebrating the "Good Tsar" in > comparison to the wicked service aristocracy. > > Suggestions or comments welcome -- and thanks. > > John Gulick > Knoxville, TN > -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles
