Political Thought and China's Transformation: Ideas Shaping Reform in Post-Mao China

223 Pages·2015·1.487 MB·English

by  He Li

Political Thought and China’s Transformation
PoliticsandDevelopmentofContemporaryChina
AsChina’spowergrows,thesearchhasbeguninearnestforwhatsuperpowerstatus
willmeanforthePeople’sRepublicofChinaasanationaswellastheimpactofits
new-foundinfluenceontheAsia-Pacificregionandtheglobalinternationalorderat
large. By providing a venue for exciting and groundbreaking titles, the aim of this
series is to explore the domestic and international implications of China’s rise and
transformationthroughanumberofkeyareas,includingpolitics,development,and
foreignpolicy.Theserieswillalsogiveastrongvoicetonon-westernperspectiveson
China’s rise in order to provide a forum that connects and compares the views of
academicsfromboththeeastandwestreflectingthetrulyinternationalnatureofthe
discipline.
SeriesEditors
KevinCai,RenisonUniversityCollege,UniversityofWaterloo,Canada
Pan Guang, Shanghai Center for International Studies and Shanghai Academy of
SocialSciences,China
DanielC.Lynch,SchoolofInternationalRelations,UniversityofSouthernCalifornia,
USA
Titlesinclude:
NadineGodehardt
THECHINESECONSTITUTIONOFCENTRALASIA
RegionsandIntertwinedActorsinInternationalRelations
RobertWeatherley
MAKINGCHINASTRONG
TheRoleofNationalisminChineseThinkingonDemocracyandHumanRights
ShaoyingZhangandDerekMcGhee
SOCIALPOLICIESANDETHNICCONFLICTINCHINA
LessonsfromXinjiang
BartDessein(editor)
INTERPRETINGCHINAASAREGIONALANDGLOBALPOWER
NationalismandHistoricalConsciousnessinWorldPolitics
HeLi
POLITICALTHOUGHTANDCHINA’STRANSFORMATION
IdeasShapingReforminPost-MaoChina
PoliticsandDevelopmentofContemporaryChina
SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–1–137–36056–4
(outsideNorthAmericaonly)
Youcanreceivefuturetitlesinthisseriesastheyarepublishedbyplacingastanding
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CustomerServicesDepartment,MacmillanDistributionLtd,Houndmills,Basingstoke,
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Political Thought and
China’s Transformation
Ideas Shaping Reform in Post-Mao China
He Li
ProfessorofPoliticalScience,MerrimackCollege,USA
©HeLi2015
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To Naifang Lu and Bowen Li
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Contents
ListofTables x
ANoteonSpelling xi
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction:IdeasandChina’sTransformation 1
Significanceoftheintellectualdiscourse 2
ContendingdebatesamongtheChineseintellectuals 5
Organizationofthebook 9
Part I ContemporaryChinesePoliticalThought
1 Liberalism 15
Earlyspreadandreemergenceofliberalism 16
Theliberaldiscourse 19
Implicationsofthespreadofliberalism 22
FactorsunderminingliberalisminChina 25
Conclusion 28
2 Neo-authoritarianism 31
Theriseofneo-authoritarianism 31
Huntington’sinfluenceontheriseofneo-authoritarianism
inChina 32
Debateinthe1980s 34
Theadventofneo-conservatism 37
Officialpartyideologyandneo-authoritarianism 39
Policyresponse 40
Neo-authoritarianism2.0? 40
Willneo-authoritarianismworkforChina? 43
Conclusion 45
3 China’sNewLeft 46
TheadventoftheNewLeft 47
InfluenceofWesternideas 48
RediscoveryofMao’slegacy 49
RethinkingtheCulturalRevolution 51
Bringingstatesocialismbackin 53
Criticizinguniversalvalues 55
vii
viii Contents
Promotingthe“ChinaModel” 56
Theriseandfallofthe“ChongqingModel” 57
Conclusion 59
4 DemocraticSocialism 60
Originsandearlyhistory 60
SpreadofsocialdemocracyinChina 61
Intellectualdiscourseonsocialdemocracy 64
Constitutionalgovernment 65
DemocraticsocialismastheorthodoxMarxism 66
Reassessmentofcapitalism 67
Farewelltorevolution 68
Swedishmodelofsocialdemocracy 69
CritiquesfromtheLeftandtheRight 70
BeyondLeftandRight? 73
Coulddemocraticsocialismmakeadifference? 76
Conclusion 77
5 NewConfucianism 79
RevivalofConfucianism 80
Majorapproaches 81
ConfucianMarxism 82
Confucianliberalism 84
PoliticalConfucianism 86
Integrationofthreetraditions? 89
FutureofNewConfucianism 91
Conclusion 93
Part II IntellectualDiscourseonCriticalIssues
6 ChineseIntellectualDiscourseonDemocracy 97
Chinesediscourseondemocracy 98
DemocracywithChinesecharacteristics 98
Inner-partydemocracy(dangneiminzhu) 101
Promotingdemocracythroughgoodgovernance 102
Single-partydemocracy 103
Rulebylaw(Fazhi) 103
Deliberativedemocracy 104
Liberaldiscourseondemocracy 106
Liberaldemocracyisthebestavailableformofgovernment 106
Ruleofthelaw 108
Limitedgovernment 108
Fundamentalpoliticalreform 109
NewLeft’sperspectiveondemocracy 109
Skepticalviewofliberaldemocracy 110
Contents ix
Governmentisanecessaryvirtue 111
Marxismnothumanrightsisauniversalvalue 112
Conclusion 113
7 DebatingChina’sEconomicReform 115
Originsofthedebate 116
Thedebateoneconomicreform 117
Marketvs.State 117
Globalismvs.Nationalism 119
Growthvs.Equity 122
Efficiencyvs.Fairness 123
Debateonpropertylaw 124
Impactsandpolicyimplications 126
Conclusion 131
8 DebateoverLegitimacy 133
Legitimacycrisis:Mythorreality 134
Sourcesoflegitimacy 136
Debatesonpossiblesolutionstolegitimacycrisis 140
Liberaldiscourse 140
TheNewLeftperspective 141
DiscourseofpoliticalConfucianism 143
Impactsofthescholarlydiscourseonlegitimacy 146
Conclusion 148
9 Conclusion:FragmentationandConsensus 150
Intellectualdiscourseandstateideologicalcontrol 151
FragmentationandconsensusamongChinesescholars 155
Impactsofintellectualdiscourse 156
Concludingremarks 157
Notes 160
SelectedBibliography 192
IndexofChineseNamesandPhrases 201
SubjectandNameIndex 205