China's long quest for democracy
Subtitle: a historical institutional perspective
By: Lin Gang
Series: New perspectives on Chinese politics and society
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781137592767
Subjects: Politics and government; Democracy; POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy; PHILOSOPHY / Political; Social change; Elite (Social sciences); HISTORY / Asia / China; Political activity
Description: "Conceptualizing China as a country with rapid economic transformation and little political progress has led to a normative misjudgment that economic reform should occur before significant democratization. This book compares several historical junctures during China's long journey towards democracy to observe the constraints of pre-chosen ideological and institutional patterns on political elites in advancing legal and electoral reforms. Confucian legacies of moralism, elitism, and state centralism, in addition to revolutionary guardianship and populism remain embedded in Chinese practice in rule by law, grassroots autonomy, and intra-party democracy. However, China's hope for democratic development is encouraged by urban and educational development, generational change and growing individualism. This book explores the feasible paths toward democracy in China, challenging methodological wisdom in employing quantitative changes in socioeconomic structure to predict change in the political system"--

"China's quest for democracy is constrained by Confucian legacies and the pre-existing norm of the one-party system. Despite socioeconomic transformation, the ruling elites have not completely shifted the base of legitimacy from government performance to constitutionalism and majority rule, failing to shed off elitism, populism and the rule of virtue in ideological and institutional innovations"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: 1. Introduction; title: 2. Liberal Democratic Principles and China's Authoritarian Tradition; title: 3. Ideological Transportation in Pre-Reform China; title: 4. Evolution of Democratic Ideas in Post-Mao China; title: 5. From a 'Party State' toward the a 'State-Party'; title: 6. Institutional Innovations toward Democracy; title: 7. Conclusions.