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Chinese Democracy: How Elite Thinking on China's Development and Change Influences Chinese Practice of Democracy (1839–The Current Time) University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 6-1-2009 Chinese Democracy: How Elite Thinking on China's Development and Change Influences Chinese Practice of Democracy (1839–the Current Time) Rey-ching Lu University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Lu, Rey-ching, "Chinese Democracy: How Elite Thinking on China's Development and Change Influences Chinese Practice of Democracy (1839–the Current Time)" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 386. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/386 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. CHINESE DEMOCRACY: HOW ELITE THINKING ON CHINA’S DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE INFLUENCES CHINESE PRACTICE OF DEMOCRACY (1839—THE CURRENT TIME) __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Dean and Faculty of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Rey-ching Lu June 2009 Advisor: Paul R. Viotti Author: Rey-ching Lu Title: Chinese Democracy: How Elite Thinking on China’s Development and Change Influences Chinese Practice of Democracy (1839—the Current Time) Advisor: Paul R. Viotti Degree Date: June 2009 ABSTRACT Will China become a multiparty democracy? This is the research problem of this dissertation. My hypothesis is this: the greater the extent that Chinese elite thinking on 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 dissertation includes two parts: Chapters two to five are historical analyses, and chapters six to eight are the interviews. It is my assumption that Chinese elite thinking on China’s development and change has been influencing the Chinese practice of democracy since the Opium War (1839-1842), and will continue to have great impacts upon the Chinese pursuit of democracy in the next 20 years. I use chapters two to five of my dissertation, the historical analyses, to demonstrate the causal relationship between Chinese elite thinking on the development and change of Chinese society on the one hand, and Chinese historical practice of democracy (from 1839 till the current time, including “Leninist ii democracy”) on the other hand, the former being the independent variable and the latter being the dependent variable. The method used in chapters two to five is historiography, I develop my causal analysis based on extensive reading of historians’ and social scientists’ works. And then I use chapters six to eight of my dissertation , the interviews, as the most current information that reveals Chinese social trends toward the next 20 years, and make an assessment of whether, in the next 20 years (2004-2024), China will become a western style, multiparty democracy—and if the answer is yes, what that democracy will look like. For example, one could argue that such a democracy will be a combination of western democracy (based on the value of individualism) and Chinese culture (based on the value of collectivism). My judgment is based on chapters two to five, the historical analyses of the long-term trend, and chapters six to eight, the information gained from the interviewees. The method used in chapters six to eight is face to face, in-depth interviews. The interviewees come from the four elite groups in the current Chinese society: government officials, the enterprise people, media professionals, and intellectuals. The interview question does not directly ask question about democracy; rather, it asks the interviewee’s personal opinions about “the positive or negative factors that have been driving or limiting the development and change of X city (in the context of development and change of Chinese society since 1839), carrying it toward the next 20 years.” So the interviewees do not directly talk about democracy—they just express their views on positive and negative factors that might influence the development and change of the city that they are in. Because in urban development one can best experience the tension between traditional values and modern values, the development and change of a city (in iii the context of the development and change of Chinese society since 1839) and how people deal with it in their thinking should reveal information about the social trends. The major findings are these: 55.5 % of the interviewees are pro-democracy; 22.2 % of them are not pro-democracy; 16.6 % of them are not concerned about the issue of democracy in China; and 5.5 % of them are uncertain. I have found substantial evidence of favorable prospects for democracy. So my conclusion is: China has favorable prospects for becoming a multiparty democracy; any democratic system that emerges likely will be a Confucian democracy (communal or social democracy); the Chinese culture will become a combination of liberalism and Confucianism; the balance of traditional elements (Confucianism) and modern elements (liberalism) will depend on each individual’s free will and free choice; the process of democratization will start with the intellectuals, and then spread to the whole nation. Finally, this democratization process will likely happen in the next 20 years (2004 to 2024), based on responses from the person I interviewed. iv Table of Contents Chapter One…………………………………………………………………………….1 (1) Research Question………………………………………………………......1 (2) My Hypothesis………………………………………………………………6 (3) Literature Review……………………………………………………………9 (4)Methodology……………………………………………………………….. 41 (5) Outline of Chapters…………………………………………………………51 Chapter Two…………………………………………………………………………....55 (1) The International Factors…………………………………………………...56 (2) The Cultural Ideals………………………………………………………… 64 Chapter Three…………………………………………………………………………..68 Politics in the Early Years of the Republic of China (1912—1916)…………...70 Chapter Four…………………………………………………………………………….85 (1) Ontology: Dialectics and the Philosophy of History………………………. 87 (2) Epistemology: The Relationship between Knowledge and Practice………..93 (3) Political Ideal: The Great Harmony…………………………………………97 (4) Class Struggle: The Way to Attain Political Ideal……………………….....102 (5) The Problem of “Democracy”………………………………………………106 (6) The Problem of Mao Zedong’s System: A Summary………………………109 (7) Prescription: A Suggestion of How to Fix Mao Zedong’s System—the Building of Liberal Democracy…………………………………………… 110 Chapter Five…………………………………………………………………………… 113 (1) The Economy……………………………………………………………….116 (2) The Social Structure...………………………………………………………120 (3) The Politics…………………………………………………………………126 (4) The Culture…………………………………………………………………129 Chapter Six……………………………………………………………………………..132 (1) The Government Officials………………………………………………….133 (2) The Enterprise People………………………………………………………146 Chapter Seven…………………………………………………………………………. 169 (3) The Media Professionals…………………………………………………... 169 Chapter Eight………………………………………………………………………….. 205 v (4) The Intellectuals…………………………………………………………… 205 Chapter Nine…………………………………………………………………………....244 (1) The Government Officials…………………………………………………. 251 (2) The Enterprise People……………………………………………………… 253 (3) The Media Professionals…………………………………………………… 258 (4) The Intellectuals……………………………………………………………..263 (5) The Conclusion……………………………………………………………...269 (6) The Theory of Deep Democracy and the Difference that It Will Make to Chinese Democracy………………………………………………………...273 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………284 Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………….292 vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION (1) Research Question Will China become a multiparty democracy? This is a topic for continuous debates. In a recent publication, scholars comment on Professor Pan Wei’s proposal of a consultative rule of law regime and debate about whether China’s political reform should and will finally lead to western style multiparty democracy or stay on a course of rule of law as Professor Pan suggests.1 The former position is supported by the empirical events of the third wave of democratization,2 and the latter position, Professor Pan’s argument, is inspired by the developmental example from Singapore and Hong Kong, two Chinese societies that succeed in modernization without adopting democracy. Professor Pan rejects the possibility of multiparty, competitive electoral democracy for the direction of China’s political reform by presenting a theory that would trace polity type to its social origins. Pan states: “A particular regime is rooted in a particular social 1 Suisheng Zhao (ed.), Debating Political Reform in China: Rule of Law vs. Democratization (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2006). 2 Samuel P. Huntington, “Democracy’s Third Wave,” in Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner (eds.), The Global Resurgence of Democracy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). 1 structure and a particular value system; and both are rooted in a particular division of labor, as well as a particular mode of production.”3 A regime type serves the need of social organization; different societies
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