Applying Organizational Theories to a One-party State, Using Imprinting, Contingency and Institutional Confusion Theories to Analyze the Evolution of China's Party-state

Abstract: Organizational theories are infrequently used to analyze states, despite states having similarities with other organizations, and very rarely used to analyze non-democratic, socialist one-party states. This retrospective longitudinal study applies imprinting, contingency and institutional confusion theories, to analyze the evolution of China's Party-state, the intertwined organizations of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China, since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 and until the present. It shows that organizational theories are useful, when analyzing non-democratic, socialist one-party states. China's Party-state was established after Soviet model, and the paper shows that it exhibits path-dependence in relation to its founding-era imprints. Its leaders are in an ongoing process of negotiation between the Party-state's founding-era imprints, organizational concepts and ideologies from the early 20th century USSR, and local environmental constraints in late 20th century and contemporary China, reflected in adjustments in the state's political ideology, economic policy and organizational structure. The paper introduces new terminology, drawing on organizational theory, to describe the People's Republic's history: 1949-1956 as "Founding Era Imprinting," 1956-2012 as "Era of Adjustments," and 2012- as "Return to Founding Era Imprints." The paper also uses institutional confusion theory, to introduce the term "company-ized state," to describe state-dominated economies, where the state's responsible for managing a vast empire of enterprises, and has itself started to act more like a corporation, than as a political organization.