Chinese Democracy and Elite Thinking

Will China become a multiparty democracy? The author posits that the more that Chinese elite thinking on China's development and change reconciles the tension between Chinese nationalism and collectivist, family-like ethics on the one hand, and the western democratic ideals based on each self-seeking individual's subjectivity on the other hand, the greater the chance that China's political development will lead to a multiparty democracy. The author projects that within the next twenty years China will march on the path of democratization.

"Rey-ching Lu demonstrates how it is theoretically as well as practically possible that concerns for collective goods and Confucian value of harmony will contribute to the evolution of liberal democracy in China, rather than hinder it. This book represents a higher moral commitment to democratization and a culturally more sympathetic approach to Chinese values than most democracy literature and China study literature in both English language and Chinese language." - Chih-yu Shih, National Chair Professor, National Taiwan University

Autorentext
REY-CHING LU Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at National Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan. He received his PhD from Josef Korbel School if International Studies, University of Denver, and has been working on China Studies for more than ten years.

Inhalt
The Qing Dynasty in Crisis (1839-1911) The Politics in the Republic of China (1912-1949) The Years Under Mao Zedong (1949-1976) The Reform Years (1978-Present) The Interview Cases in Shanghai