The Maoist constitutional reform

Although the Lin Biao Affair diluted Mao’s radical leftism to a certain extent, the 1975 constitution was still a document that reflected his communist enthusiasm. The constitution acknowledged abstract “people’s rights,” instead of “human rights,” and governmental institutions yielded to the power of the party and the party leader. “Rule of man” was justified through Marxist political economy, which views commodity production as the basis for the need for law.