The Financial Times reported in 2013
that there was “no great clamour in China for western democracy.”[1] The assumption in the West that prosperity in
China will someday inevitably usher in democracy may unduly privilege Western
political values in an exogenous context. The newspaper suggested that
prosperity can be the source of rising pressure for political change rather
than an antidote to it. In other words, the power shift between the state and
individual that is unleashed by rising incomes does not necessary privilege the
individual. Time and again, China’s leaders have refused to shift power to the
individual at the expense of the state; social harmony, and power, are just too
important. To be sure, cronyism and corruption, while endemic in China, are not
esteemed cultural values, and the rising middle-class may demand that the state
clamp down on the unfairness of government officials “wetting their beaks.”
This would be particularly problematic if the growing upper-middle-class demand
more transparency in government and more rule-of-law to instill fairness over
the personal aggrandizement of government officials. However, President Xi, at
least publically, would hardly object, as he set out to come down hard on
corruption even in the state. At the very least, the matter of increasing
wealth and democracy in China can only be complex, yet we can come to some
conclusions based on Chinese history and the Chinese view of democracy being
Western.
The
full essay is at "New Wealth and Democracy: A Chinese
Puzzle."
1. Philip
Stephens, “Political Cracks Imperil China’s Power,” The
Financial Times, January 24, 2013.
