100
W. ALLYN RICKETT
at the operations level consisted almost entirely of hastily trained students or political cadres, amateur in approach and guerrilla in methods of work. Thus, while the Chinese Communists may have had some intellectual appreciation of the need for formal laws and institutions, the slightest excuse in the name of survival was sufficient for a reversion to revolutionary expediency.3 Moreover, Mao Zedong himself, with his hatred for bureaucratization and emphasis on the mass line, was never willing to consider law any more than a mere tool of the revolution, to be used or rejected as changes in the political scene dictated.
The basic guidelines for the new China were set out in a series of Mao's speeches and writings involving his concept of "New Democracy," culminating in his essay "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" released on June 30, 1949 just before the founding of the new People's Republic. In this latter document in particular, Mao does not mince words; good people belonging to the four classes of the New Democracy (workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie) would be entitled to democratic rights, people belonging to the enemy classes (landlords and bureaucratic capitalists) would be subjected to repression and dictatorship.
When Communist forces took over the country in 1948-49, local areas first came under military control commissions. In the cities these brought together "conferences of all circles" which formed people's governments beginning at the local level and then expanding upwards. In the countryside peasant associations formed the basic units which were to conduct land reform and form the bases for local governments. As local people's governments developed, powers were increasingly turned over to them by the military control commissions. However, the military control commissions retained power in all cases affecting security through their public security forces. The military control commissions also continued to maintain military tribunals in some areas for trying counter-revolutionary cases as late as 1954. People's Courts were formed immediately following 1949, largely in accordance with the demands of the situation and types of personnel available. In Shanghai, for example, a new People's Court was constituted by giving some 200 former judicial personnel and
100
W. ALLYN RICKETT
at the operations level consisted almost entirely of hastily trained students or political cadres, amateur in approach and guerrilla in methods of work. Thus, while the Chinese Communists may have had some intellectual appreciation of the need for formal laws and institutions, the slightest excuse in the name of survival was sufficient for a reversion to revolutionary expediency.3 Moreover, Mao Zedong himself, with his hatred for bureaucrati- zation and emphasis on the mass line, was never willing to consider law any more than a mere tool of the revolution, to be used or rejected as changes in the political scene dictated.
The basic guidelines for the new China were set out in a series of Mao's speeches and writings involving his concept of "New Democracy," culminating in his essay "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" released on June 30, 1949 just before the founding of the new People's Republic. In this latter document in particular, Mao does not mince words; good people belonging to the four classes of the New Democracy (workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie) would be entitled to democratic rights, people belonging to the enemy classes (landlords and bureaucratic capitalists) would be subjected to repression and dictatorship.
When Communist forces took over the country in 1948-49, local areas first came under military control commissions. In the cities these brought together "conferences of all circles" which formed people's governments beginning at the local level and then expanding upwards. In the countryside peasant associations formed the basic units which were to conduct land reform and form the bases for local governments. As local people's govern- ments developed, powers were increasingly turned over to them by the military control commissions. However, the military control commissions retained power in all cases affecting security through their public security forces. The military control com- missions also continued to maintain military tribunals in some areas for trying counter-revolutionary cases as late as 1954. People's Courts were formed immediately following 1949, largely in accordance with the demands of the situation and types of per- sonnel available. In Shanghai, for example, a new People's Court was constituted by giving some 200 former judicial personnel and
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