2026, no. 4
ECONOMY & MANAGEMENT IN SOCIAL SYSTEMS

The theory of the formation of China’s political elites and Chinese modernization. Part II. Empirical tests — the material base, the scientific and technological revolution, and spiritual socialist culture

Li Zhoru

DOI 10.20339/AM.04-26.099pp. 99–108UDC 316.3-058.3(510)80 RUB

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Abstract

Part II identifies and empirically tests the strategy for shaping the political elites of the PRC’s party-state complex, as presented in Part I, which is linked to two factors of China’s modernization: namely, the material and technical base and the scientific, technological, and digital revolution, as well as with the transformation of the superstructure and spiritual socialist culture. A procedural reconstruction of the sequence of reforms, combined with official statistics and empirical evidence, makes it possible to identify the mechanisms underlying elite formation, including institutionalized rotation, professionalized selection, institutional adaptation and innovation, network resources, and scientifically sound management procedures — as intermediary links through which elites link industrialization, innovation policy, and data management to the tasks of social stability, redistribution, and risk management. In the material-technical sphere, strategic planning, institutional design, and the “development — security” nexus translate scientific and technological shifts into an institutionalized path of modernization, establishing a sustainable framework for the management and support of innovation. Within the superstructural framework, ideological production, anti-corruption and disciplinary practices, as well as cultural and value-based integration, shape institutional legitimacy and sustain the reproduction of spiritual socialist culture culture.

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