ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how reforms have affected the ideological self-definition of the Party-state and have led to both a decay in the strength of the legitimating ideology and to the search for alternatives within the ruling elite. It also discusses how the reforms have affected the Party state's relationship to society in terms of the structure of representation. The chapter describes Party-state relationship to society in terms of control over discourse, which combines the study of the system with that of practice and accepts that society and the Party-state interact and interpenetrate and that the Party-state can powerfully constrain society. The suspicion of particular interest and political activity outside of direct Party control seemed to be reinforced by events in the chaotic world of the young Republic. The 1982 State Constitution defines the nature of the state as a "socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship", a concept similar to the 1954 definition of China as a "people's democratic state".
