ELITE TRANSFORMATION AND RECRUITMENT IN POST-MAO CHINA

This article examines the changes in elite recruitment criteria and th e changing nature of the political bureaucracy in China since the 1980 s. A dual career path model is proposed for understanding how the Chin ese Communist Party combined expertise and political loyalty to create a new elite to promote development with political stability. Statisti cal analysis of a 1988 data set on 593 Chinese officials holding leade rship positions in the central and provincial governments demonstrates that university education and seniority in party membership increased a cadre's odds of being promoted into the post-Mao leadership. Howeve r the impact of university education on promotion was greater in the g overnment system than in the parry hierarchy. The analysis indicates t hat the current Chinese leadership is an administrative-technical elit e resembling its counterparts in the former East European socialist co untries.