ABSTRACT
Most historians and students of comparative politics are inclined nowadays to the view that the real victories of the Chinese Communist revolution are to be measured more in terms of "state building" than in terms of "building socialism." The fundamental historical significance of the revolution is lodged not so much in the specific political programs or in the soaring social aspirations of the Marxian ideology its leaders proclaimed, but in the raw and simple fact that final military victory by the revolutionists in 1949 put an end at last to China's prolonged national nightmare at the edge of anarchy. Against the sorry backdrop of a century's dynastic decline, civil war, and social decay, the victory of the People's Liberation Army finally swept from the stage all the frowsy remnants of the old regime. The Communists' triumph brought peace at last, national reunification, and a mandate to govern. The social catharsis of a brutal and protracted revolution cleared the way, in short, for the winning party to rebuild the state. 1
