New Books Network Xiaobo Lü, "Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Oct 5, 2025
Xiaobo Lü, an associate professor at UC Berkeley and author of "Domination and Mobilization," dives into the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) versus the Nationalist Party (KMT). He unpacks his novel framework linking leadership styles to political success, contrasting elite-centric and mass-centric mobilization strategies. Lü reveals how KMT's internal strife and reliance on local elites hindered its effectiveness, while the CCP thrived on grassroots tactics. The discussion also touches on the lasting legacies of these parties in contemporary China.
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Leader Plus Organization Explains Success
- Dominant leadership plus organizational capacity explain party success better than ideology alone.
- A dominant leader reduces free-rider and distributional conflicts so a party can mobilize resources effectively.
Two Paths To Building Power
- Elite-centric mobilization co-opts existing elites and their resources to build a party quickly.
- Mass-centric mobilization builds grassroots infrastructure to recruit ordinary people and challenge existing power structures.
Early Strategies Shaped Later Strengths
- The CCP began weak and relied on Comintern aid, while the KMT co-opted local elites to build state capacity.
- KMT's elite-centered strategy sacrificed grassroots mobilization and later fiscal resilience.
