The Practical Logic Of State Building:A Research Of The Party-State System Of The Kuomintang(1927-1949)

Since 1927,the party-state system established by the Kuomintang has had a profound impact on China’s politics,society and economy.What effect and influence did the party-state system have on China’s state-building process?At present,academia has carried out many profound and splendid studies on the party-state system and state building respectively,but few literatures have connected the two to carry out a systematic and complete analysis.Hereby,this dissertation attempt to put forward the practical logic of state building.The essence is that the establishment and improvement of the party-state system are based on the practice process of China’s state building.Under the constraints of practice logic,the operation process of the party-state system is also practical and has different performances and effects on the country’s state building.By introducing the framework of legitimacy and its institutional changes,the practical logic of state building is deconstructed into three associated analytical dimensions of national unification,state integration,and national(economic)development.In terms of national unification,the party-state system implements the process of military-politics and allocution-politics,and even exerts its influence during the constitution-politics period.With its political structure and violence advantages,the party-state system is facing the threat of fragmented violence while barely maintain the unity of the country’s territory.In terms of state integration,the party-state system has penetrated into the grassroots and society in the process of vertical and horizontal integration,and used nationalism to promote state integration,in order to strengthen administrative control and ensure the ruling party ’s monopoly of power,but it is difficult to foster long-term identification from citizens.In terms of national development,the party-state system has made progress in improving the economic system and adjusting the economic process through fiscal and monetary reforms.However,the distortion of the economic structure,the expansion of the fiscal deficit,and the runaway inflation have exacerbated crisis of the party-state system.By hackling the different effect of the party-state system at the level of unification,integration and development of state building in turn,it is helpful to reveal the effect and influence of the party-state system in the process of state building in modern China.At an overall level,the internal and external factors in the practice of the party-state system are also driving the evolution and historical changes of China’s state-building.From a time perspective,the party-state system is built on the background of social disorder in modern times.The three aspects of state building are not evenly distributed before,during,and after the anti-Japanese war.The party-state system has long been plagued by problems at the level of national unity,making it difficult to achieve breakthroughs at the level of state integration and national development.From a spatial perspective,the party-state system faces the influence of the Soviet Union,Japan,and the United States on China’s state building process,but it has also created a political and economic dependence state in the process of continuously improving national strength.The practice of the Kuomintang party-state system shows that the process of state building led by political parties has certain effects.However,relying only on high strength militarized administrative control has inherent limits,which is manifested in the predominance of military power and the prevalence of localism,and the neglect the Party’s role in the transformation and adjustment of social attributes.