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      Will China Suffer the Same Fate as the Soviet Union?

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      research-article
      World Review of Political Economy
      Pluto Journals
      China, Soviet Union, socialism, reform
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            Abstract

            It was widely assumed in the West following the collapse of European socialism that China would undergo a similar process of counter-revolution. This article seeks to understand why, three decades later, this hasn't happened, and whether it is likely to happen in the foreseeable future. The article contrasts China's “reform and opening up” process, pursued since 1978, with the “perestroika” and “glasnost” policies taken up in the Soviet Union under the Gorbachev leadership. A close analysis of the available data makes it clear that China's reform has been far more successful than the Soviet reform; that, in contrast to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, all the key quality of life indicators in China have undergone significant improvement in the last 40 years, and China is emerging as a global leader in science, technological innovation and environmental preservation. The article argues that the disparate outcomes in China and the Soviet Union are the result primarily of the far more effective economic strategy pursued by the Chinese government, along with the continued strengthening of the Communist Party of China's leadership.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10.2307/j50005553
            worlrevipoliecon
            World Review of Political Economy
            Pluto Journals
            2042-891X
            2042-8928
            1 July 2020
            : 11
            : 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.11.issue-2 )
            : 189-207
            Article
            worlrevipoliecon.11.2.0189
            10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.11.2.0189
            fc7f60e5-919e-46fa-b16d-12a33f60001c
            © 2020 World Association for Political Economy

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Custom metadata
            eng

            Political economics
            Soviet Union,socialism,reform,China

            References

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