New Books in Political Science Xiaobo Lü, "Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
11 snips
Oct 7, 2025 In this discussion, Xiaobo Lü, an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley and author of "Domination and Mobilization", dives into the dynamics of political parties in China. He contrasts the Chinese Communist Party's mass-centric mobilization strategies with the elite-focused approach of the Nationalist Party. Lü examines key historical shifts, the impact of the wartime period, and how leadership styles influenced party fortunes. His insights shed light on how these legacies continue to shape China's political landscape today.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Domination And Mobilization Framework
- Domination plus mobilization explain party success: a dominant leader reduces elite free-riding and a mobilization infrastructure extracts resources.
- Xiaobo Lü argues these two factors jointly powered the CCP's rise over the KMT.
Two Modes Of Mobilization
- Elite-centric mobilization recruits political and economic elites to supply resources and networks.
- Mass-centric mobilization builds grassroots infrastructures to recruit ordinary citizens and extract local support.
Early Strategic Divergence
- The CCP began weak and depended on Comintern support while the KMT built state capacity via co-opting elites.
- KMT's elite-centric strategy neglected grassroots mobilization, creating vulnerabilities later.
