ABSTRACT
In making such a statement, one can only read in dismay certain past scholarly efforts to analyze Maoism and the violence which is an integral part of it. A representative offering is that articulated by Mark Selden:
The thesis of this essay is as follows: Out of the ashes of military strife which enveloped China and Vietnam in protracted wars of liberation emerged a radically new vision of man and society and a concrete approach to development. Built on foundations of participation and community action which challenge elite domination, this approach offers hope of more humane forms of development and of effectively overcoming the formidable barriers to the transformation of peasant societies.1
