The expansion of the private sector described in Chapter 2 has led to predictions that privatization will inevitably bring about political change in China and ultimately democratization. Expectations that China's capitalists will be agents of political change are based on two assumptions. The first is that the CCP is a passive actor, but as this chapter will demonstrate, it has actively integrated large numbers of private entrepreneurs into the party. The second is that China's capitalists have political beliefs and policy preferences significantly different from those of the state and will therefore promote a democratic opening; this will be explored in later chapters.

Throughout the reform era, the CCP abandoned its earlier goal of promoting class struggle for the key task of promoting economic modernization. Consequently, it undertook a determined and extensive effort to recruit new members with new sets of skills into the party. The change in goals necessitated a change in criteria for recruiting new members and appointing new personnel to key posts in the party and government at all levels. Party leaders recognized that the kinds of people who joined the party when waging revolution and class struggle were the focus of the party's agenda were ill suited to the more pragmatic efforts to develop the economy and raise living standards. Although the co-optation of new members is a key dimension of the policy of inclusion that allows Leninist parties to adapt and is also an important factor for promoting organizational change in a variety of organizations, it also leads to tensions within the organization between the proponents and opponents of change.