Abstract:

As the largest Marxist governing party in the world, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has always been alert and determined to tackle the special challenges that large parties face. According to the party organization literature, these are the impacts of membership growth on the party’s structure and organizational behavior. The actual challenges for large political parties are manifold: imbalances between the quantity and quality of party members, between centralization and decentralization of power, rising collective action of party members, and organizational complexity. Many large parties have failed to balance these internal relationships, leading to disastrous results. From the perspective of organizational theory, we can identify the special challenges faced by the CPC.

Key words: special challenges of large parties, party organization theory, party size, party membership