Abstract
Chapters 2 and 3 have shown how Schmitt’s political theory can enrich our understanding of the relationship of law and political authority and of the individual and the state in the politics of transition. In Chapter 1, I mentioned that some Chinese scholars use the drawbacks of Mao’s political theory to deny justification for studying Schmitt’s theory in China. Although I briefly discussed the difference between Schmitt and Mao in Chapter 1, still more work needs to be done in order to present a complete picture of the relationship of Schmitt’s theory and Mao’s. Their real theoretical relationship, which is concern to the second research question of this book, will strengthen the justification for studying Schmitt’s theory in China. This is the first reason for me to introduce Mao’s political theory in this project. Another reason is that his drawback, which is revealed through the comparison in Chapter 5, deepens our understanding of the nature of the politics of transition. In order to fulfill these two aims, this chapter offers a systematic analysis of Mao’s political theory.
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Notes
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Stuart R. Schram, The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 45. ‘Yan an heritage’ refers to the political method to rely on the masses.
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© 2015 Qi Zheng
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Zheng, Q. (2015). The Key Components of Mao Zedong’s Political Philosophy. In: Carl Schmitt, Mao Zedong and the Politics of Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137466594_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137466594_5
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