ABSTRACT
Political authority and decision-making processes in the People's Republic of China (PRC) have long been a subject of scholarly inquiry. Scholars of Chinese politics such as Roderick MacFarquhar, Lowell Dittmer, and Avery Goldstein argue that political power in Beijing is highly personalistic. Personal and institutional describe the two types of authority despite the considerable vagueness about the boundaries between them. The authority of most political leaders in the early period of the PRC was mixed. Variations in the relative weight of personal and institutional authority in the policy-making arena flow from the characteristics not only of the hierarchical structure but also of different issue areas. In other words, "policy determines politics." Differences in the properties of policy itself give rise to differences in the organization of politics and, consequently, in the role and influence of individual leaders and institutional actors.
