If “democracy” is a term that sounds so familiar to many Western countries, the concept, on the other hand, does not adhere a same value in developing countries, especially for China. In fact, Chinese population is heavily under the effect of democratization resistance for many reasons, including but not limit to (1) the government’s own definition and version of democracy (2) Chinese’s long historical factors and unique cultures, (3) different political philosophy and (4) whether is developed or still developing status. With the growth of globalization, the concept of democratization has been encouraged and discouraged in many ways.
Unlike many nations, China is a country with at least 5000-year-long civilization, a long rich history with
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However, Chinese government is lack of those conditions to become a democracy.
First, China defined its own version of democracy, which is called socialist democracy or “with Chinese characteristics” (Green & Luehrmann, 2011, p. 337). In China, apart from the Communist Party of China, there are eight different political parties called democratic parties, which were mostly founded during the anti-Japanese war and the national liberation war (crienglish.com, 2014). These parties, however, do not involve with ruling party in China, but rather only participate in the discussion and administration of the State affairs. In the contrary to how China claims to have its own democracy version, there is a government hierarchy of executive power in China, in which the authoritarians have justified their centralization of power as a way to secure their countries from collapse. (Green & Luehrmann, 2011, p. 339) In other word, such government is described as “personalist regimes”, which means that there is such a consolidation of power in the hands of one individual that this leader comes to personify the nation (Green & Luehrmann, 2011, p. 340). For example, China’s prime minister Wen Jiaobao, also known as “Grandpa Wen” or “ the crying prime minister” has established his symbol as “rescuers at
Since the start of the 20th century, with the fall of the Qing dynasty, when China was in shambles with no industry, a corrupt government and no international presence, all the way up until today, where China has evolved into one of the strongest internationally recognized countries with a highly globalized market, the relationship between the Chinese people and its government has been debated on whether or not Chinese society is one ruled and dominated by a central government or a society where social change occurred because of bottom-up forces leading to a government for the people. China, since 1949, has been a country, which has been run by a single party state, known as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). The CCP is organized under the basis of a central, unchallenged party governing the people by the means of communism. Throughout the past century, the CCP has dictated and maintained a rule over the livelihood of its people by monopolizing Chinese politics and penalizing those who opposed it, through central command planning and on the other spectrum, radical economic reforms at the end of the 20th century in the interest of keeping the CCP in power.
Tracing back the history of China, Xia Dynasty of the second millennium BCE was the earliest dynasty in China, which was centered along the Yellow River. Before China was unified, it was the time during which most of China's cultural tradition arose. Chinese civilization ascended and developed in a vast area, one-third larger than the United States if such dependencies as Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet are included. For centuries China was almost completely isolated from the other centers of civilization by mountains, deserts, and seas. This isolation helps explain the great originality of China's culture. China has many mountain ranges and three river systems that rise close together on the high Tibetan plateau and flow eastward to
China is one of the Four Ancient Civilizations. China’s long and mysterious history is over 4,000 years. The Chinese dynasties include Shang, Zhou, Han, Tang, Sung, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. Each dynasty had made contributions to China today. China has the world 's longest continuously used written language system, and is the source of many major inventions.
At first these plans along with an extremely ingenious propaganda campaign stirred great optimism and productivity within the Chinese people, but as years went by the initial flare and excitement went out and few of these promises, reforms and goals had been reached. In some cases the promises were lies. The real actions of the Communist party showed quite a different picture than the lie of democracy that it was feeding the people. The new government never was a democratic one. As a matter of fact it was a dictatorship controlled by the China’s Communist Party (CCP). Throughout the years the communist government consistently and cruelly suppressed any attempts for the country’s democratization.
“The Party: The Secret World Of China’s Communist Rulers,” by Richard McGregor is a book which provides detailed insight into the Communist Party of China, revealing many of the secret underpinnings of how the party is run, and explores the question of how they have continued to stay in power for so long. While other strong socialist powers, such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany, fell at the end of the 20th century, the CPC was able to stay in control and ultimately come out of that period even stronger. In McGregor’s own words “the party picked itself up off the ground, reconstituted its armor and reinforced its flank. Somehow, it has outlasted, outsmarted, outperformed, or simply outlawed its critics, flummoxing the pundits who have predicted its demise at numerous junctures.” Instead of letting its own ideologies weaken its power, the CPC has continually adapted and transformed its policies and goals in order to maintain their stronghold over the nation. Through his impressive list of Chinese scholars and political contacts, McGregor is able to lay out the fundamental workings inside the Chinese government and the impressive actions they’ve taken to remain such a powerful organization.
Chinese immigrants have made significant contributions in America after the country was developing and recovering from the Civil War. They migrated to United States in the early 1800s and filled in the hard and long laboring jobs. They were also the essential and most important group of immigrants for constructing the railroads in the West. As the economy of United States become more industrial and successful, the numbers of Chinese immigrants and workers also increased. A number of them became entrepreneurs establishing factories and farms, creating many more jobs and contributing a positive influence to the economy of America. Furthermore, their population have grown more than any other immigrant groups during the late 1800s. As their population grow, so did the power of anti-Chinese beliefs among the workers in the American industries. This has caused the legislation to reduce the coming of Chinese working immigrants to the United States which also infuriated the relationships between United States and China.
As an effect from the civil war, the Chinese has changed in many ways, and when inspecting these changes, one can see that a lot of these changes have helped turn China into a dystopian society. As a result from the civil war in China between Communists and Nationalists, and the Communist victory, China has remained a single-party with Communists in control. The Chinese government also supplies their citizens with very little personal rights and freedoms, castigating many who oppose them. Also, China’s government works in way that in China, one’s personal relationships would matter much more than one’s position in the politburo, the main group of decision makers. To add on, there are multiple parts to this government that do do different things,
In America, nearly all of the political officials are directly elected by votes cast by any citizen 18 year of age or older. Most positions have boundaries that clearly define the office’s power and that there is a means by which to remove an elected official. China's citizens can only vote for the politicians that the Communist Party approves of and the citizens can only be involved in government if the party lets them do so. Many of the positions in Chinese Government are appointed by the officials that are already in an office of power and not by the people, making the “People’s Republic of China” not very people oriented. Both countries have a tri-branch system but, unlike America, China's doesn't have a system of checks and balances to make sure that everything remains
Can democracy work in China? Zakaria feels it cannot be ignored the progress the Chinese economy has had under its state as a free economy. But the problem continues to be the political progress of this country. China still only has a small middle class, which is detrimental towards a functioning liberal democracy. During the 1980s, there were pushes for political reform from members of the
In the year of 1989, the People’s Republic of China remains under a communist regime. As the world is moving forward with new technologies and innovations empowering new beliefs, democracy is becoming the next big government. China’s economy is slowly flourishing and their traditions still hang on. But with the increasing amount of western influences pouring into China through foreign trade, people are beginning to notice the wrong in communism. Citizens of China gradually learn more and more of the values and benefits of democracy and a small spark of change for a better government soon turns into a blazing inferno seen across the globe. The Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 is related to this year’s theme of standing up because it sent shock
Initially, Chinese had coexisted well under one rule. However, three powerful dynasties emerged after the Han dynasty, forming three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu. An element of democracy started getting into China’s politics, though at the time of the three dynasties, the kings had amassed power through their naval strength. The fact that power was divided from one kingdom to three, however, shows decentralization of influence, which is an element of democracy. The formation of the three dynasties in China did not offer any practical solution to the chaotic situation in the country. This disapproves the imagination that democracy was growing in the country. If it was indeed democracy, then its growth had not ended. This is because after the formation of the three dynasties, political division in China widened even further. No powerful dynasty in the continent’s history appeared to be answering the question of China’s unity. It appeared like political plurality had entered in China to stay. For example, the failure of the Jin Dynasty to solve the puzzle of China’s political unity shows how divisive China was becoming. Polarization of leadership was more serious in Northern China. This judgment arises from the fact that the Jin dynasty did not solve the puzzle of multiple kingdoms in the north of China. Sixteen kingdoms emerged in the north as the Jin dynasty attempted to unite China.
Democracy has become the most widespread political form of government during the past decade, after the fall of all its alternatives. During the second part of the 20th century, the 3 main enemies of democracy, namely communism, fascism and Nazism, lost most of their power and influence. However, democracy is still only to be found in less than half of this world's countries. China with a fifth of the total population "had never experienced a democratic government" and Russia still doesn't have a well established democracy. By adopting a democratic perspective, 3 types of governments emerge, non-democratic, new democracies, and old democracies, and all have a different challenge to overcome: either to become democratic, to "consolidate"
Since the Cold War era, the spread of democracy and its implications have been highly debated across the world. As more states adopt this method of government, the question of how to interact with opposing states has taken the spotlight in the context of international relations. Some scholars, like Robert Kaplan, believe that democratic elections do not help with social and economic stability in developing countries. Others, particularly supporters of the United States idea of democracy such as Sean Jones, believe that democracy benefits the inhabitants of newly democratizing states, promotes peace in the international system, and advances U.S. interests. This paper will explore the support and opposition of the claim that spreading
Throughout history we have seen staggered periods of rising global democracy. Specifically The third wave is seen as a time of soviet communist satellites and curtain countries turning democratic. We see great success in democratization in the more western European former soviet states. Often times these transitions were remarkably peaceful as in the many colored revolutions. One case that stands out as an example of a failure to democratize is within China. With many communist states questioning their governance it was natural for Chinese citizens to express these same idea concerns. What we see though instead of the European style peaceful transition is a small scale political movement
The Communist Party of China is based on ideology and politics, where the majority of policies are derived from the people’s will. The Communist party tends to be made up of high ranking officials in a tight net community with a lot of power. (Chinatoday Resources, 1997) This government is known for needing to be in control of everything including; education, media, and business to name a few. Recently the Chinese president has