ABSTRACT
The contrasting fates of popular pressures for democratic reforms of the Marxist-Leninist systems of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China in 1989 merit consideration and analysis. In the waning days of the Qing dynasty, trends were emerging that encouraged the strengthening of China's nascent civil society. After Mao Zedong's death in 1976, China's new leaders recognized the authority crisis they faced. Although many former rightists, rusticated Red Guards, and "capitalist roaders" preferred to avoid trouble and enjoy their restored lives quietly, others saw their bitter experiences and years in political limbo as having provided them with authority to speak out about what changes China needed. To be sure, there were very important sources of weakness in this newly revived civil society of urban China. As China entered the 1990s, there was some restriction in the scope of civil society in urban China, but a situation far short of the suppression that characterized the Mao era.
