ABSTRACT
Every state – notwithstanding the Hobbesian view as rational contract – is a legacy passed from one generation to the next, and is based on inescapable history. Twentieth-century China has witnessed a succession of state-building attempts, each incorporating lessons and adapting institutions from what were perceived the dominant and most successful on the global scale. RNS3 was a variation of the liberal MSNS, while GRS4 drew inspiration from China’s own ICS2, American democracy and several contemporary authoritarian states, including the Soviet Union. In 1949, the SCS5 followed the USSR in important dimensions – industrialization strategy, Communist dictatorship as government, central planning, collectivization of agriculture, cult of personality, massive repression of “class enemies,” and foreign policy. After Nikita Khrushchev’s quasi-repudiation of Stalin, Mao Zedong pursued establishment of MCS6 – an original state-form, but one that proved corrosive and destructive to human security. Since the 1978 reforms, DMS7 has modified or abandoned central features of its two predecessors, with major success in modernization, though China remains an incomplete MSNS without inclusion of Taiwan.
