Democracy with Chinese characteristics
Tom Doctoroff writes on the China Business InfoCenter web site, Democracy in China: They Just Say No. Doctoroff is a "leading authority on marketing in China" and is China CEO of J. Walter Thompson. His warnings second those I quoted last Friday in Insights for us teachers.
The article would make a good study for comparative students considering what democratization in China really means.
Democracy in China: They Just Say No
"Authoritarianism is noble. Individualism is selfish. Liberal democracy yields economic stagnation (or worse) and technocratic dictatorship produces sustained growth. Is this how mainland Chinese really feel?...
"China is not evolving towards democracy in the Western sense (i.e., one-man-one vote, not merely distaste for corruption). Even more unsettling to Americans is that "new generation" Chinese, in some ways so much "like us," do not want democracy...
"Like the United States, China boasts an upwardly mobile population and continental scale. It's burgeoning highway system looks and feels just like ours. But China's world view is radically different from America's. To ensure a harmonious 21st century, we must avoid rash assumptions that Chinese, in their hearts, want to become Americans. They want to be modern. They want to be international. But they don't want to be Western. And this isn't just because the Communist Party says so.
"There are three reasons why democracy, within the next several decades, will not take root in the PRC.
"Learning from Others. First, and most circumstantially, the Chinese look around at what democracy has wrought to non-Western nations, and they are not amused. In their eyes, the Russian economy collapsed under the weight of democratic folly and only regained momentum with the strong arm of Vladimir Putin. India's vibrant elections are regarded as the cause of its dilapidated infrastructure and bloated bureaucracy, not the cure. And the natural disasters hammering Indonesia, from tsunami to earthquakes, are almost seen as omens of heavenly displeasure.
"Cultural Imperatives. Second, Tang dynasty poetry, checker board city layouts, calligraphy, gaudy neo-rococo interiors, Hello Kitty clubs, the Cults of Mao and Yao, porcelain cups and "Buick hip" did not pop up by accident. China boasts a cultural blueprint that stretches back 5,000 years and it is not democracy-friendly. The country, pounded year after year by drought, famine and invasion, has always regarded the (outside) world as dangerous. It has never taken survival for granted and, when threatened, defends its turf through ruthless mobilization of resources, both material and human. Chinese philosophy and religion are, therefore, morally relativistic (ends justify means). Each strand mandates stability and balance, never sanctioning "pursuit of happiness." Universal human rights are dangerous, not noble.
"As encapsulated in the ba gua and Yi Jing, Daoism's universe has an exquisite natural design and man must never tinker with it, lest chaos erupt. Confucianism, the elaborate hierarchical code dictating human interaction concerns societal order. In both, the basic productive unit of society is the clan, not the individual...
"Trust in Leadership. Third, to the Chinese, robust central authority is efficiency's lynchpin. That's why behemoth brands are revered - Microsoft is trusted more than Mao - and challenger brands usually fail. Singapore's "managed democracy," not Western liberalism, is often cited as a model for political reform...
"Therefore, the middle class... is not itching for democratic reform. Yes, they demand protection of financial interests. They rail against corruption... However, in Han eyes, any weakening of central command militates against stable economic advancement. Indeed, the majority of young, educated mainlanders endorse President Hu Jintao's technocratic savvy and support his government's authoritarianism...
"The Chinese are, if nothing else, supremely pragmatic... and blessed with an expansive world view... They are masters of relentless incrementalism, as both the gradual-yet-inexorable depreciation of renminbi and steady crawl up the manufacturing value chain attest.
"But the Chinese economy and government will continue to evolve at a pace and in a direction that accommodates cultural imperatives and contemporary circumstances. Any hectoring about human rights, let alone Jeffersonian democracy, will elicit wan, tired smiles. However, if we are able to help the Chinese understand the relationship between, say, "rule of law" and efficient capital allocation, mainland audiences will listen..."
Labels: China, concepts, democratization, political culture, theory
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:43 AM
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