CHINESE PEOPLES CONGRESSES AND LEGISLATIVE EMBEDDEDNESS - UNDERSTANDING EARLY ORGANIZATIONAL-DEVELOPMENT

Evidence from medieval Europe and modem China suggests that cooperatio n with strong executives plays a larger role in early legislative deve lopment than is generally acknowledged: that under conditions of absol utism (or near-absolutism), acceptance and exploitation of subordinati on may be a means to organizational development. In this article, the author relies primarily on interview data and Chinese field research t o show that early legislative development can occur without significan tly increasing conflict with established authorities and without winni ng autonomy. The author further argues that legislative embeddedness, as measured by clarified and expanded jurisdiction and increased capac ity, is a product less of conflict than of executive support and atten tion, and that support and attention in the early stages of organizati onal development can be understood in terms of a legislature's presenc e, its reliability and usefulness, and the political standing of its l eaders. The article's conclusion offers a new approach to early legisl ative development that shifts attention from conventional measures of institutionalization and hinges on understanding the process of embedd edness.