Politics and Youth in Post-Mao China

Political participation is a kind of activity that youth may engage in order to exert an influence on the form, the operation and the policy-making of the current political system through legal channels. The theoretical perspective which provides the framework for the goals and objectives of a given youth organization may be different depending on the ideology of the totalitarian state which it propounds. However, special attention must be drawn to the youth organizations in Fascist and Communist societies, where the young people have been expected to join such organizations from an early age and subjected to powerful influences designed to make them faithful and reliable tools or willing helpers of the ruling group or party. The drive for economic development and the Chinese leadership seeking fresh ways and means to enlist the commitment of the youth, among other sections of the society. This book has transported some of the issues played by the Chinese Youth League in shaping the political culture and economic reform of the modern China in the Post-Mao period.