China's revolutie en Michels' ijzeren wet: een kritiek

Samenvatting

J. A. A. van Doorn published an article on China ("De voortgezette revolutie: China en de ijzeren wet der oligarchisering," the continued revolution: China and the iron law of oligarchization, sociologische gids, 16, 3). He attempted to apply Michel's iron law to the Chinese revolution. It is highly questionable that Michel's law is applicable to the Chinese situation. There is no unequivocal explanation of the iron law, and there is no distinction drawn between leaders' oligarchy and party oligarchy. The signs of oligarchization are said by Van Doorn, to be massive growth and bureaucratization on the part of the political organizations, elitism and immobility on the part of the leaders, and passivity and apathy on the part of the masses. Van Doorn analyzed chinese society on the basis of these traits, and concluded that while there are definite signs of oligarchization in China, the nature of the Chinese revolution is nonetheless dynamic and therefore antioligarchical. However, on the grounds of the criteria given by Van Doorn, it is clear that Chinese society is on the way to becoming oligarchical. In Tromp over Robert Michels: een repliek (Tromp on Robert Michels: a reply) J. A. A. van Doorn notes that Tromp criticizes the analysis of the Chinese revolution by stating that Michel's law is not applicable to it, but then says that this impossible application is applied incorrectly. It is a fact that China has managed to avoid the oligarchization which could have been expected. The situation in the USSR cannot be compared to that in China, since the USSR has never undergone a phenomenon similar to the cultural revolution, and has therefore developed a monolithic form of communism. Tromp seems surprised that the Chinese revolution remained anti oligarchical and dynamic in nature; this was precisely the purpose of the cultural revolution. Tromp's criticism of Michel's theory stems largely from the fact that he has viewed the iron law outside of the context of Michel's other work. Michel's schema remains a valuable tool for the analysis of radical democracy. P. Tiersma.