ABSTRACT
Leadership has been one of the major strong points of the People's Republic of China's political system since 1949, clearly distinguishing the regime both from its immediate predecessor and from nearly a century of humiliating national weakness. Whereas the Chinese Communist party has long decried a "cult of personality," nevertheless the party has consistently fostered a cult of leadership. The death of Mao Zedong marked the first serious challenge to the system that ensured the continuing existence of the conditions for effective leadership. The stage is set for an analysis of leadership and its reform during the Deng Xiaoping era. The actors sorted themselves out horizontally in terms of factional affiliation and vertically in terms of generations, arranging themselves by seniority into a gerontocratic pyramid. The new leadership structure fused Leninist and indigenous elements, the former influencing its constitutional and formal aspect, the latter shaping its more informal arrangements.
