Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Power diminishes as term ends?

When a former student comes up with a trenchant observation, how can I resist passing it on? Adam Minter lives and works in China. His observations on his blog, Shanghai Scrap, shed light on the sources of political power in China.

A Brief Note on Chinese Lame Ducks

The other… [day] New York Times’ diplomatic correspondent Mark Landler suggested that Hu Jintao had entered the “lame duck” period of his Presidency. I was on the show with Landler… and I respectfully corrected his use of the term…

So, just to be clear: the use of lame duck, by Landler in regard to Hu, and to politicians in other circumstances, typically suggests that the politician’s influence is on the wane due to an imminent succession or election. In Democratic countries, it’s a genuine phenomenon… But it’s a tenuous concept, at best, when applied to authoritarian systems, and especially relationship-based systems such as China’s. In China, unlike in a democratic country, power tends to accrue to leaders over the course of their tenure, in large part because they are developing, and deepening, the relationships that keep them in power… Unlike prior Chinese Presidents and CCP secretaries, Hu assumed power in 2002 without the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission; he would have to wait until 2004 before he could muster enough institutional pressure to wrest that from Predecessor Jiang…

But I think it’s indisputable that the man has more power – and a wider power base in the party – in 2011 than he did when he assumed national leadership in 2002. The notion of a lame duck – that power declines upon election – just doesn’t apply here…

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Labels: China, political culture, politics