ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the distinctive features of China's government and party structures to provide background on the problems associated with Bo Xilai's fall and more broadly about the country's future. The implosion of most party-state systems has turned many scholars away from a comparative framework when examining China, but Chinese researchers have concentrated on understanding the dynamics that had so quickly led to the demise of the former Communist governments. Throughout the revolutionary process, the Communist Party thus maintains its "leading role," both in theory and in practice, so it is not surprising that one of the Four Cardinal Principles in the General Program of the party constitution is upholding the people's democratic dictatorship. The early 1950s were also a period of close relations with the Soviet Union, with Russian textbooks used in the schools and Soviet advisers helping to build the new institutions of the state.
