MAO ZEDONG, ZHOU ENLAI AND THE BUREAUCRACY

This study examines why and how Mao Zedong carried out the rectification movements to tame bureaucratic conservatism. The study also examines Zhou Enlai's role in the struggle to control the bureaucracy. The major rectification movements in China from 1949 to the Cultural Revolution are examined, comparing Mao's and Zhou's position on the role of the bureaucracy in China's development.;The study reveals that Mao sought to purge the conservatized leadership cadres and attempted to establish new power structures by introducing mass representation. Mao formed ad hoc leadership organizations and mobilized the masses for revolutionary tasks, directly confronting the bureaucracy.;The most critical force which moderated the rectification movements was Zhou Enlai's leadership. Zhou, the bureaucratic politician, was partially successful in defending the organizational integrity of the existing structures from the total destruction. Zhou attempted to balance ideological goals and organizational integrity which frustrated Mao's drive to control bureaucratic interests.;In the end, the rectification movements such as the Cultural Revolution ceased to be "shock therapy" and their economic and political costs were high. Violent rectification movements directed against the bureaucracy with uncontrolled mass participation will not be probable in China in the near future.;The findings of this study suggest that Mao viewed the conservatized bureaucracies as critical barriers to continued revolutionary changes, and that continuing the class struggle was required both within and outside the Party and in the state machineries in order to achieve the revolutionary goal. The task of taming bureaucratic conservatism was elevated to ideological and violent power struggles during the Cultural Revolution.