ABSTRACT
The factors that contributed to change the decision-making process in China from vertical to horizontal, or disjointed, authoritarianism emerge both from the effects of the economic reform process, i.e. the gradual decentralization of the decision-making process, and from the planned reorganization of the political and management system, implemented from 1982 onwards. The reform policy is not supported by the whole of the Communist leadership today, however. Within the Chinese Communist Party, the struggle between reformists and conservatives, inclined towards a more limited economic development, will probably break out again after Deng’s death. Deng Xiaoping is very old, and observers are inevitably asking what will happen after his death. Economic liberalization certainly altered China’s centuries-old ‘bureaucratic feudal model’, while political reforms, even though partly implemented, supported the demand for greater participation on the part of the populace and gave life to some expectations for greater political pluralism.
