Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, November 08, 2012

A smaller center

As the details of the leadership transition in China are ironed out, it seems that the Politburo's standing committee will have fewer people on it. The hope, observers think, is that it will be easier for the group to reach consensus. And the center of democratic centralism will be more united. But will there be more dissent outside the center?

Grabs for Power Behind Plan to Shrink Elite Circle

To outside observers, the move may appear to be little more than bureaucratic reshuffling: trim two seats from the nine-member body that governs China by consensus at the pinnacle of the Communist Party.

Current Politburo Central Committee

But the proposal by Chinese leaders to downsize the body, the Politburo Standing Committee, offers one of the clearest windows available into the priorities of the party and the mechanics of power-sharing and factional struggles as the leadership transition nears its climax at a weeklong congress scheduled to open Nov. 8.

Party insiders and political analysts say party leaders… are at the moment sticking to an earlier decision to shrink the committee to seven seats…

Chen Ziming, a well-connected political commentator in Beijing [said]… “I think the goal is to increase the efficiency and unity at the top level. Everything is decided in meetings, and with fewer people it’s easier to reach decisions.”

The committee is a group of aging men with dyed hair and dark suits who make all major decisions about the economy, foreign policy and other issues. Their meetings are not publicized in the state news media. The party chief often presides, but they operate by consensus, which means decisions are generally made only when the members reach agreement.

Members of the committee represent different patronage networks and hold different portfolios — security, propaganda, the economy and so on — which can result in competing interests. Business lobbies are represented informally on the committee…

Alice L. Miller, a scholar of Chinese politics at the Hoover Institution, said… “The most compelling [reason] is that there seems to be a trend in policy stagnation… an inability to arrive at decisions collectively within the standing committee that I think shows up in a number of different ways.”…

The plan to shrink the committee this year could still founder if leaders fail to agree on who should be promoted to a smaller body. The end result could be a retention of the nine-member committee to accommodate all the interests.