The Specter of Failed Transition
Tocqueville and the Reception of Liberalism in Reform China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4944367 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Els Van Dongen (0000-0003-2342-0932, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 253-279 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0730-479X • E-ISSN: 1918-6649 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/ttr.41.1.253 |
| OpenAlex | W3020850745 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 16 |
What connects the political thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) to China? Hitherto, scholars have answered this question by looking into references to China in his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution or by applying insights from his works to issues of democratization. This article seeks to move beyond these "Tocquevillian perspectives on China" and instead foregrounds "Chinese perspectives on Tocqueville": How did Chinese thinkers understand Tocqueville in reform China (post-1978)? Building on existing research that has analyzed Tocqueville as a thinker concerned with transition rather than with democratization per se, this article posits that Chinese intellectuals interpreted Tocqueville to warn against the dangers of "failed transition" after the suppression of the Tiananmen demonstrations and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Swayed by the Tocquevillian paradox of reform, they identified the French and Anglo-American "models" as "cases" from which general lessons could be drawn. The article further posits that the renewed interest in Tocqueville in the 2010s was also marked by the specter of failed transition. Later, readers and officials pinpointed the rise of social inequality as a potentially destabilizing factor . Finally, the article sheds light on these contemporary readings of Tocqueville against the broader background of the history of liberalism in China
China · Democracy · Democratization · Liberalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Transition (genetics · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Political Theory and Influence · Religion and Society Interactions
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High Culture Fever
The Intellectual Foundations of Chinese Modernity
A Discussion on Authoritarianism with Samuel Huntington, the Pioneer of the Theory of Authoritarianism
Classical Liberalism Catches On in China
The New Authoritarianism
The recasting of Chinese socialism
Transformation Des Sociétés Et Naissance Des Révolutions
The French, Meiji and Chinese revolutions in the conceptual framework of Tocqueville
Democracy in China
An Intellectual History of Modern China
Liberalism in contemporary China
In Search of Wealth and Power
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |