Democratization in China
The New York Times web site offers access to reports from the Council on Foreign Relations.This report offers some insight into political changes in China.
Backgrounder: China's Slow Road to Democracy
"Has there been democratic reform in China?
"Village elections... Nomination of local Community Party officials... Public hearings on legislation...
"Joseph Fewsmith, an expert in Chinese domestic politics at Boston University, says the above 'innovations' often serve to solidify the Communist Party’s central authority. 'I see them delaying democracy as much as promoting it,' says Fewsmith, who believes seemingly democratic processes check the power of local agents and improve governance without actually instituting Western-style democracy.
"What is the role of social protest in China?...
"What is the role of petitioning in Chinese society?...
"What is the role of civil society in China?...
"What are prospects for democratic reforms?...
"What are the chances for a democratic future in China?
"In the July/August 2007 edition of Foreign Affairs, Azar Gat argues authoritarian capitalist powers such as China and Russia 'may represent a viable alternative path to modernity, which in turn suggests that there is nothing inevitable about the liberal democracy’s ultimate victory—or future dominance.' In June, political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who predicted the evolution of all states toward Western-style democracies in the 1989 essay The End of History, told the International Herald Tribune the time frame for China turning democratic 'has to be a lot longer.' In the next few decades, he said, '[T]he authoritarian system will keep getting stronger and stronger.'"
Labels: change, China, democratization
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:47 AM
1 Comments:
Once again, I ran into a follow-up minutes after posting here.
Isabel Hilton, the editor of chinadialogue wrote an op-ed piece for The Guardian (UK).
China's one-party monopoly of power is coming to an end
"Increasing numbers are speaking up against local tyrannies and corruption, and no longer can the state silence them...
"Two years ago, the Chinese government published a white paper on democracy that opened with the stirring proposition that 'democracy is an outcome of the development of political civilisation of mankind. It is also the common desire of people all over the world'. Earlier this year the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, announced that "democracy, law, freedom and human rights" were not exclusive to capitalism.
"But the white paper went on to explain that 'democracy with Chinese characteristics' had been the party's gift to the Chinese people and there is little sign that this has changed... Hu Jintao, the party general secretary, told an audience at the Party School, the communists' most important thinktank, that 'greater participation' by the people was desirable - as long as it did not jeopardise the party's rule...
"[I]ncreasing numbers of citizens... are organising themselves into a bewildering range of pressure groups and action committees, despite restrictions on civic organisation, learning how to take action and pressure officials to obey the law of the land. In a growing number of articles, writers and intellectuals are challenging the proposition that the party has a divine right to the monopoly of political power - and the government no longer feels able to silence them."
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