Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Why the mighty fall

This Washington Post editorial offers some good analysis about rule of law and follows up on yesterday's entry here about Bo Xilai.

The rule of law proves evasive in China

A GLANCE AT THE news from China on Friday might suggest a political system reacting properly to high-level wrongdoing… But does the official version of events in Chongqing match what really happened?…

China possesses courts, laws and judges. But… China still is not governed by rule of law, the simple but unshakable principle that no one — not the party, not the Politburo — is above the law…

China’s Communist Party bosses see the law as a tool of control, a method to intimidate those who challenge their policies or their monopoly on power… A larger point is that rule of law is the best method for regulating competition among different groups in society, for settling disputes and serving as a check against abuse of power. It is an essential pillar of democracy, a concept that fills China’s leaders with trepidation.

In the case of the ousted Mr. Bo, it seems the party wanted to dispose of the embarrassing scandal before the Nov. 8 opening of the 18th Party Congress, at which the next generation of leaders will be anointed. But the high-profile expulsion of Mr. Bo only reinforces a sense that it is the party, and not the law, that reigns supreme.

2005 map of Worldwide Governance Indicators (based on the World Bank's data), which attempts to measure the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society. Colors range from dark green (90th-100th percentile) to light green (75th-90th percentile), yellow (50th-75th percentile), orange (25th-50th percentile), pink (10th-25th percentile) and red (0th-10th percentile). Percentile rank indicates the percentage of countries worldwide that rate below the selected country.