From revolutionary regime to normal governance: China's long march toward political reform

The author analyzes the post-2003 transformation of China from a revolutionary Communist regime into one of "normal governance" (a term Premier Wen Jiabao coined in 2003), placing the change in a comparative framework pioneered by Crane Brinton in his monumental study of the four classic revolutions (French, English, American, and Bolshevik). Crane Brinton found a universal pattern that he called the Thermidorean reaction, a surprisingly early return to normalcy. In borrowed medical language, he likened it to convalescence following the fever of the crisis stage of revolution. However, it is difficult to identify this stage in the Chinese Revolution. The author traces the long, convoluted course of the Chinese Revolution through four generations of leadership, from Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping to Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao, to identify the start of the Thermidorean reaction in China.