ABSTRACT
The last years of Mao's life had witnessed an intense polarization between the supporters of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, and the uhraleftist Shanghai radicals led by Jiang Qing. I A basic cleavage between the twO groups centered on their experience in [he Cultural Revol ution and attitudes towards its legacy. The latter group upheld the Cultural Revolution's emphasis on the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in socialist society, and the attendant vigilance against capitalist restoration. The radicals policy preferences centered on indigenously generated economic and technological development, high levels of collectivization , normative incentives and an open education system stressing work-study curricula and political criteria. The preferences of the former harked back [0 pre-Cultural Revolution educational and industrial-agricultural policies and were reAected in the o ri entation of the Fourth NPC and the Hu Yaobang-Hu Qiaomu sponsored "Report Outline" and "Twenty Artides." Evaluating socioeconomic pol icies in terms of developmental imperatives and efficiency they perceived the ultraleftist preoccupation with class and class conflict as antithetical to their goals.
