Virtue,Law and Chinese Political Tradition: Can the Past Predict the Future?

This paper intends to build a case for a third alternative that can reconcile the two opposing views of democracy, i.e., the consensual vs. the adversarial, through a reexamination and reconstruction of Chinese traditional theories of political governance. The paper links the rule of virtue with consensual politics, and the rule of law with adversary politics, By focusing on the roles of virtue and law, and their importance to the acquisition and maintenance of original and utilitarian dimensions of political legitimacy, the paper proposes a hybrid version of democracy that will continue the dualist political tradition while enabling necessary political modernization.     

网络论坛环境下的社会主义主流意识形态认同研究

随着网络技术的迅速发展，网络论坛成为广大网民发布信息、交流观点和意识形态交锋的重要阵地。网络论坛对人们思想观念产生了越来越大的影响，对我国社会主义主流意识形态认同提出了新的挑战。对此，必须认清网络论坛对社会主义主流意识形态认同提出的有利条件和不利影响，有针对性地加强网络论坛环境下的社会主义主流意识形态认同研究。努力探索实现社会主义主流意识形态认同的策略、方式和方法。     

Deliberative participatory budgeting: A case study of Zeguo Town in China

The search for a better practice instrument of civic engagement has led to participatory budgeting and deliberative polling in recent years. Participatory budgeting stresses empowerment and citizens' struggle against the establishment and unequal social structures, whereas deliberative polling works within the system and focuses on improving democratic decision‐making processes by applying credible social science methods. Often, these two processes are presented as being in conflict with each other, which is to the detriment of the search for best practice in deliberative governance. This paper develops a theoretical analysis of deliberative participatory budgeting which is distinguished from unrepresentative and non‐deliberative but self‐selected participatory budgeting; that is, it considers how the quality of participatory budgeting can be improved through deliberative polling. This theoretical analysis is backed by an empirical study of deliberative participatory budgeting in Zeguo Township, Zhejiang Province, China. It explores whether, how, and under what conditions it is possible to combine deliberative polling and participatory budgeting. It details four experiments and assesses the successes, failures, limitations, and problems of the experiments. The case of Zeguo offers scholars, activists, and officials lessons about how to pursue best deliberative practice in both authoritarian states and democratic societies.     

重温形式理性法律的特质——韦伯视野及当代价值

韦伯认为直至现代资本主义阶段,形式合理性法律开始形成并成为最具合理性的法律形态。韦伯视野中的形式理性法律具有权威性、确定性、平等性、自治性、专业性、合法性等特质。总结、重温和厉行这些形式理性法律特质,对于我国当下经济建设和法治建设都具有重要的启发价值。     

Political legitimacy and china’s transition

This study reveals a distinctive Chinese cognitive model of political legitimacy, and analyzes how political leaders in Beijing have maintained its legitimacy through cultivating different elements of this traditional model. The central argument developed in this study is that so far the government in Beijing has shown remarkable adaptability to a changing political environment. However, the transition towards a market economy has redefined the meanings of the century-old cognitive model. Consequently, the existing system of legitimization is being seriously challenged. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Brandies University. His recent articles appeared onAsian Survey, Modern China Studies, Twenty First Century (Hong Kong), andAmerican Review of China Studies. The author wishes to thank for the helpful comments made on earlier drafts of this paper by Yang Zhong, A. Jack Waskey, He Li, Jim Stevenson, John Hebestreet, Tang Wei, and anonymous reviewers.     

Dilemmas of pluralist development and democratization in China

This article argues that the Western concept of pluralism, with some qualifications, can be applied to Chinese cultural, economic and political development, analyses the dilemmas of the reform process so far, and evaluates future possibilities. It examines the formation and limitations of cultural and economic pluralism, and their significance for party pluralism in China. The new ‘arts of rule’ that have been employed by the Chinese government to reconcile diversity and plurality with unity and stability, are also outlined.     

Infusing morality into political institutions

This paper argues that democratic institutional design does not require a sage's conception of morality, or Chinese Marxist, goal‐based morality. But it would be wrong to take this further and argue that no form of morality constitutes a normative basis for democratic politics. Contrarily, the author argues for a right‐based morality as being a solid moral foundation for Chinese liberal institutional design; and a procedural conception of morality as an actual basis for well‐functioning democratic institutions. The argument of the independence of politics from morality fails because the problem of the abuse of procedure intrinsically requires a moral remedy that procedure should be fair. Practical argument of the catastrophic consequences of infusing politics with moral principles fails because it fails to distinguish between goal‐based and right‐based moralities. The cultural relativist argument fails again because empirical moral diversity does not exclude a normatively minimal international morality and because a universal doctrine of right‐based morality is rooted in today's Chinese politics.     

Chinese Expanded Perceptions of the Region and Its Changing Attitudes Toward the Indo-Pacific: a Hybrid Vision of the Institutionalization of the Indo-Pacific

The existing literature on the Indo-Pacific has largely focused on how and why the USA, Japan, Australia, India, and Indonesia have promoted the strategic concept of the Indo-Pacific, and how China has rejected it in the domain of maritime security. What has been overlooked, however, are dramatically expanded Chinese perceptions of the region and changing and complex Chinese attitudes and responses toward the Indo-Pacific. This essay aims to fill this gap by demonstrating how China has coopted certain components of the Indo-Pacific in its geoeconomic hegemonic project. This can be partially explained by unfolding and expanding Chinese perceptions of the region, characterized by geoeconomics and maritime/continental hybridity. This paper brings a missing perspective to the debate by highlighting China’s evolving, complex, and multifaceted approaches regarding the Indo-Pacific. It also offers a conceptual tool of a hybrid vision of the institutionalization of the Indo-Pacific for the enterprise of regional cooperation.     

David Shambaugh,ed., China & the World

Journal of Chinese Political Science -