Research: Cognitive Dissonance or Power Maximization

In their article The Cultural Revolution Revisited: Dissonance Reduction or Power Maximization, Paul J. Hiniker discusses possible causes for the general chaos and violent struggle during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As the article’s title implies, Hiniker compares two explanations for the violence: a power struggle organized by Mao as an attempt to gain power, and an alternative which views the struggle as a search for ideological consonance stemming from bitterness over Mao’s failures of the previous decade.

Hiniker doesn’t claim that the Cultural Revolution was not a strategy to regain Mao’s lost influence, that is a given, considering the massive political purges during the time. However, he believes that is not a sufficient explanation. Indeed, a young generation had grown up under Communist rule, specifically under Mao’s cult of personality. The power of these adolescents as Red Guard fighters was one of the driving forces during the Cultural Revolution, at times a force orthogonal to Mao’s own direction. The frustration and confusion over the lack of a consistent and effective administration in the Communist Party must certainly have played a role in the chaos of the time.

The massive failure that was the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) followed a decade of successful socialization of industry and agriculture, as well as a partial modernization of technology with the assistance of the USSR. Those who believed strongly in the ideals of the Revolution as a whole, and that under the leadership of Mao China could become a communist utopia would suffer uncomfortable cognitive dissonance when tens of millions of people died as a result of the Great Leap Forward, which was expected to be another success on Mao’s resume. And in order to regain consonance, one must change their beliefs. This is a painful process for any one person, but for a growing country of hundreds of millions of people trying to find unity under one central party… Every person, from Mao to the peasants he made his promises to, all had to come to terms with reality. Indeed, top communist leaders such as Deng Xiaoping actively worked against Mao in the post-Great Leap period, though this could also be attributed to power maximization as well.