Managing Central?Local Relations During Socialist Marketisation

Summaries In the early years of reform, the reduction of the party's power took place alongside decentralisation; since 1993, however, party leadership has been reinforced as part of the measures to strengthen central control. While marketisation has sharpened contradictions between socialism and the market economy, a paradoxical situation has emerged in which the party organisation has been called upon to assist in the smooth management of the market economy. The key issue was how to enforce discipline among the localities and economic and financial institutions in the transition. Establishing a vertical leadership system of the party at the core of the market economy, namely, its financial system, can be seen as a modern Chinese way of resolving the contradiction between socialism and market economy.