Anti-Corruption in China a century ago
I read the blog Jottings from the Granite Studio and learned about an article from the New York Times "Week in Review" section. (Well, I was on the road for 12 hours Sunday, so I wasn't paying as much attention as I usually do.)The article is The Chinese Go After Corruption, Corruptly by Jim Yardley.
Yardley writes, "President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao have warned that corruption threatens the credibility and legitimacy of Communist Party rule and have vowed to stamp it out. But many experts say that truly stamping out corruption would involve the type of broad political reform and a full embrace of the rule of law that the party has long resisted...
"Last year, the party committee responsible for internal discipline investigated more than 147,000 corruption cases, most handled outside the legal system...
"It is a reminder that often the Communist Party opts to address corruption outside the law."
The blogging historian then notes that the Qing Dynasty responded to widespread corruption after the "Boxer Rebellion" by creating "unprecedented political and institutional bodies, such as provincial assemblies and the New Army divisions, that then played key roles in sweeping the Qing from power in 1911."
The historian's conclusion is "The CCP are not stupid. They know that the kinds of reforms necessary to create a culture of law and accountability would inevitably weaken the party's grip on power. The question is: Are China's problems so serious as to force the CCP's hand in the near future or can the party continue with the current strategies of exhortations, purges, and institutional tinkering?"
That's a political science question.
See earlier related posts here
- More Details about Anti-corruption Politics in China
- Even More on Corruption and Politics
- Testable Hypothesis; Corruption; Patron-Client Politics
- Guanxi: Patron-Client Politics in China
posted by Ken Wedding @ 11:02 AM
1 Comments:
Check this additional note from Jottings from the Granite Studio:
Corruption Purge could claim Standing Committee Member
"One reason for China's recent success has been the relative stability of the leadership. Compared to the turbulence of the Mao years, the transition from Deng to Jiang to Hu, while not without its dramas, has been relatively smooth and widescale purges rare. This has meant a continuity at the top that's allowed for economic growth and a climate for investment but it also can make officials complacent in their jobs...
"The problem is the motivation behind the purges. I'm not in favor of corruption, but like so many things in China, the rationale seems more to consolidate power than solve a problem..."
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