Democracy in China

Tocquevillian Reflections

Bibliographic Data

ID4523707
AuthorsMing Chong, Alice M L Chong (0000-0002-5727-1325, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume38
Issue1
Pages81-111
Publication date2017-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0730-479X • E-ISSN: 1918-6649
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/ttr.38.1.81
OpenAlexW2678013481
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited11

One of the strangest phenomena in today's China is that a thinker as liberal as Tocqueville has become well-known due to the recommendation of a top leader of China's authoritarian regime. No matter how one interprets this phenomenon, Tocqueville's theoretical and historical reflections on democracy and revolution provide a framework to understand how democratic China has been and might be. The democratization of Chinese society as reflected in the diffusion of equality as a value and ongoing individualization is facilitating both centralization and empowerment of the state. The limited and dysfunctional grassroots democracy, the weakness of civil society, and the rise of illiberal political Confucianism present serious obstacles to political democratization in China. However, with the possible failure of statism, political democracy would be an alternative. The fragile but increasing demand for freedom in civil society might contribute to the advancement of a long, unsteady and difficult democratization in China

Authoritarianism · China · Civil society · Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Grassroots · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Statism · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Political Theory and Influence · Religion and Society Interactions

Tools

Open DOI