This book is based on Conference on the Transformation of Socialism in the Soviet Union and China, and reveals a second feature of the conference: the candor of the presentations. It discusses the effects of the reforms on political processes and the development of socialism.

Introduction -- The Transformation of Socialism -- Reappraising History -- Perestroika and the New Economic Policy (1921-1928): The Uses of History -- A Past to Serve the Present: The Reappraisal of Westernization and Revolution in Chinese History -- Party and State -- Party-State Relations Under Gorbachev: From Partocracy to "Party" State? -- A Comparative Study of the Features of the Socialist Political System and Possible Reforms -- The Social Consequences of Reforms: Culture, Intellectuals, and the Economy -- Cultural Resistance to China's Modernization -- The Trend Toward Pluralism in Chinese Literature -- A Literature of Reform, A Reform of Literature1 -- Soviet Culture and Society Under Gorbachev -- The Social Consequences of Economic Restructuring in the USSR -- Researching the Soviet and Chinese Reforms -- Shades of Excellence: The Communist Party and Elites in China and the Soviet Union -- Perestroika in the USSR and Reforms in China: Contrasts and Assessments of Their International Impact -- Reform and Development in the Primary Stage of Socialism in China -- The Economic Reforms -- The Perils of Perestroika -- The International Economics of Perestroika -- Chinese Economics and the Economy During the Period of Reform -- China's Economic Reform and the Future of Socialism