ABSTRACT
The relationship between state and society in the People's Republic of China was substantially altered in the 1980s. The analysis of the dynamics involved in the irony of historical proportions, and what it portends for China's future, points to the central importance of information. Bitterness resulting from Maoist political campaigns and an alienation arising from revelations of economic advances outside China made ideological promises of a Communist Utopia through infallible Party leadership untenable even before the death of Mao Zedong. Beginning in 1978, post-Mao leaders felt compelled by an overwhelming sense of crisis to repudiate major tenets of the Mao era and set off in new policy directions in order to stem the hemorrhaging of Party legitimacy. A combination of halfway measures, greater information, and heightened expectations undermined political stability and regime legitimacy. The awareness that Party rule has collapsed in its homeland has had an irreversible negative impact on Party legitimacy in China.
