Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-fx4k7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-24T05:09:19.104Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Authoritarian Deliberation: The Deliberative Turn in Chinese Political Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2011

Baogang He  and
Mark E. Warren
Baogang He
Affiliation:
School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University, Australia, and Tianjin Normal University, China. E-mail: baogang.he@deakin.edu.au
Mark E. Warren
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia. E-mail: warren@politics.ubc.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Authoritarian rule in China is now permeated by a wide variety of deliberative practices. These practices combine authoritarian concentrations of power with deliberative influence, producing the apparent anomaly of authoritarian deliberation. Although deliberation is usually associated with democracy, they are distinct phenomena. Democracy involves the inclusion of individuals in matters that affect them through distributions of empowerments such as votes and rights. Deliberation is a mode of communication involving persuasion-based influence. Combinations of non-inclusive power and deliberative influence—authoritarian deliberation—are readily identifiable in China, probably reflecting failures of command authoritarianism under the conditions of complexity and pluralism produced by market-oriented development. The concept of authoritarian deliberation frames two possible trajectories of political development in China: the increasing use of deliberative practices stabilizes and strengthens authoritarian rule, or deliberative practices serve as a leading edge of democratization.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 269 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Angle, Steven C. 2005. “Decent Democratic Centralism.” Political Theory 33(4): 518–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, Robert H. 1991. “The Economics of Transitions to Democracy.” PS: Political Science and Politics 24(1): 24–27.Google Scholar
Bell, Daniel, and Chaibong, Hahm, eds. 2003. Confucianism for the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bellone, Carl J., and Goerl, George Frederick. 1992. “Reconciling Public Entrepreneurship and Democracy.” Public Administration Review 52(2): 130–34.Google Scholar
Bohman, James. 1998. “The Coming of Age of Deliberative Democracy.” Journal of Political Philosophy 6(4): 400–25.Google Scholar
Bohman, James. 2000. Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy. Cambridge, Mssachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, Allen, and Keohane, Robert O.. 2006. “The Legitimacy of Global Governance Institutions.” Ethics and International Affairs 20: 405–37.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. “Power Structure and Regime Resilience: Contentious Politics in China.” British Journal of Political Science 38(3): 411–32.Google Scholar
Cain, Bruce, Dalton, Russell, and Scarrow, Susan. 2003. “Democratic Publics and Democratic Institutions.” In Democracy Transformed? Expanding Political Opportunities in Advanced Industrial Democracies, ed. Cain, Bruce, Dalton, Russell, and Scarrow, Susan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
“The Central Party's Ideas on Strengthening the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.” 2006. People's Daily March 2.Google Scholar
Chambers, Simone. 2003. “Deliberative Democracy Theory.” Annual Review of Political Science 6: 307–26.Google Scholar
Chan, Joseph. 2007. “Democracy and Meritocracy: Toward a Confucian Perspective.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 34(2): 179–93.Google Scholar
Chen, Shengyong. 2006. “The Native Resources of Deliberative Politics in China.” In The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China, ed. Leib, Ethan and He, Baogang. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Chen, Shengyong, and He, Baogang, eds. 2006. Development of Deliberative Democracy. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
China Innovation. 2006. “Results of Local Government Innovation.” http://www.chinainnovations.org/default.html, accessed February 5, 2008.Google Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 1996. “Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy.” In Democracy and Difference, ed. Benhabib, Seyla. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, David, and Levitsky, Steven. 1997. “Democracy with Adjectives.” World Politics 49(3): 430–51.Google Scholar
Croissant, Aurel. 2004. “From Transition to Defective Democracy: Mapping Asian Democratization.” Democratization 11(5): 156–78.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1998. On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dallmayr, Fred. 2004. “Beyond Monologue: For a Comparative Political Theory.” Perspectives on Politics 2(2): 249–57.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2002. “Elections without Democracy: Thinking about Hybrid Regimes.” Journal of Democracy 13(2): 21–35.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry, and Myers, Ramon H., eds. 2004. Elections and Democracy in Greater China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2003. Red Capitalists in China: The Party, Private Entrepreneurs, and the Prospects for Political Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Difranceisco, Wayne, and Gitelman, Zvi. 1984. “Soviet Political Culture and ‘Covert Participation’ in Policy Implementation.” American Political Science Review 78(3): 603–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dryzek, John S. 2006. Deliberative Global Politics: Discourse and Democracy in a Divided World. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John S. 2009. “Democratization as Deliberative Capacity Building.” Comparative Political Studies 42(11): 1379–402.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John S. 2010. “Rhetoric in Democracy: A Systemic Appreciation.” Political Theory 38(3): 319–39.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John S., Downes, David, Hunold, Christian, Schlosberg, David, Hernes, Hans-Kristian. 2003. Green states and Social Movements: Environmentalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon, ed. 1998. Deliberative Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Estlund, David. 1997. “Beyond Fairness and Deliberation: The Epistemic Dimension of Democratic Authority.” In Deliberative Democracy, ed. Bohman, James and Rehg, William. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James S. 1995. The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James, He, Baogang, Luskin, Robert C., and Siu, Alice. 2010. “Deliberative Democracy in an Unlikely Place: Deliberative Polling in China.” British Journal of Political Science 40(2): 435–48.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James S., and Laslett, Peter, eds. 2003. Debating Deliberative Democracy. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James S., He, Baogang, and Siu, Alice. 2006. “Public Consultation through Deliberation in China: The First Chinese Deliberative Poll.” In Governance Reform under Real-world Conditions: Citizens, Stakeholders, and Voice, ed. Odugbemi, Sina and Jacobson, Thomas. Washington: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Frug, Jerry. 1990. “Administrative Democracy.” University of Toronto Law Journal 40(3): 559–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“A Fruitful Experiment in Developing Grass-root Democracy.” 2005. Study Times, December 12, 2005. Beijing: Central Party School.Google Scholar
Fung, Archon. 2006. “Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance.” Public Administration Review 66: 66–75.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1999. “What Do We Know about Democratization after Twenty Years?” Annual Review of Political Science 2: 115–44.Google Scholar
Ghandi, Jennifer. 2008. Political Institutions under Dictatorship. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, Edward L. 2005. “Boundary Control: Subnational Authoritarianism in Democratic Countries.” World Politics 58(1): 101–32.Google Scholar
Gilley, Bruce. 2004. China's Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Goodin, Robert. 2008. Innovating Democracy: Democratic Theory and Practice after the Deliberative Turn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy, and Thompson, Dennis. 1996. Democracy and Disagreement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 2. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1996. Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Trans. Rehg, William. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hangzhou Municipal Office of Legislative Affairs. 2007a. “The Current Situation and Problems of China's Administrative Public Hearings.” http://www.hangzhoufz.gov.cn/fzb/xsyd/llyd014.htm, accessed July 26, 2007.Google Scholar
Hangzhou Municipal Office of Legislative Affairs. 2007b. “Online Deliberation on Various Drafts of Legislation.” http://www.hangzhoufz.gov.cn/fzb/, accessed July 26, 2007.Google Scholar
Harding, Harry, 1987. China's Second Revolution: Reform after Mao. Washington: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2003. “The Theory and Practice of Chinese Grassroots Governance: Five Models.” Japanese Journal of Political Science 4(2): 293–314.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2006a. “Participatory and Deliberative Institutions in China.” In The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China, ed. Ethan Leib and Baogang He New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2006b. “Western Theories of Deliberative Democracy and the Chinese Practice of Complex Deliberative Governance.” In The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China, ed. Ethan Leib and Baogang He New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2007. Rural Democracy in China. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2008. Deliberative Democracy: Theory, Method and Practice. Beijing: China's Social Science Publishers.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2010a. “Four Models of the Relationship between Confucianism and Democracy.” The Journal of Chinese Philosophy 37(1): 18–33.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2010b. “The Deliberative Approach to the Tibet Autonomy Issue.” Asian Survey 50(4): 709–34.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2010c. “Intra-Party Democracy in China.” In Political Parties and Democracy: Volume III: Post-Soviet and Asian Political Parties, eds. Kay Lawson, Anatoly Kulik, and Baogang He. [city]: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
He, Baogang. 2011. “Civic Engagement through Participatory Budgeting in China.” Public Administration and Development 31(2): 122–133.Google Scholar
He, Baogang, and Thøgersen, Stig. 2010. “Giving the People a Voice? Experiments with Consultative Authoritarian Institutions in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 19(66): 675–92.Google Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2008. “Policy Experimentation in China's Economic Rise.” Studies in Comparative International Development 41: 1–26.Google Scholar
Held, David. 1996. Models of Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hess, Steve. 2009. “Deliberative Institutions as Mechanisms for Managing Social Unrest: The Case of the 2008 Chongqing Taxi Strike.” China: An International Journal 7(2): 336–52.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Response to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hough, Jerry F. 1976. “Political Participation in the Soviet Union.” Soviet Studies 28(1): 3–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hough, Jerry F. 1997. Democratization and revolution in the USSR, 1985–1991. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Karl, Terry Lynn. 1995. “The Hybrid Regimes of Central America.” Journal of Democracy 6: 72–86.Google Scholar
Kelly, David. 2006. “Citizen Movements and China's Public Intellectuals in the Hu-Wen Era.” Pacific Affairs 79(2): 183–204.Google Scholar
Leib, Ethan, and He, Baogang, eds. 2006. The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan A.. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 13(2): 51–65.Google Scholar
Li, Junru. 2005. “What Kind of Democracy Should China Establish?” Beijing Daily, September 26.Google Scholar
Lin, Shangli. 2003. “Deliberative Politics: A Reflection on the Democratic Development of China.” Academic Monthly 4: 19–25.Google Scholar
Linklater, Andrew. 1998. The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the Post-Westphalian Era. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan. 1964. “An Authoritarian Regime: Spain.” In Mass Politics, ed. Allardt, E. and Rokkan, S., New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Junning. 1998. “From Rechtsstaat to rule of law.” In Political China, ed. Yuyu, Dong and Binhai, Shi. Bejing: Jinri Zhongguo Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Luwan District 2003. Collected Materials on Public Hearings in Luwan. Shanghai. Luwan District.Google Scholar
Macedo, Stephen, ed. 1999. Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Manin, Bernard. 2002. Principles of Representative Government Representative Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, Scott. 2007. “Wen: China Democracy 100 Years Off.” Time Magazine, March 1. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1594010,00.html, accessed March 28, 2007.Google Scholar
Mo, Yifei, and Yiming, Chen. 2005. Democratic Deliberation: The Innovation from Wenling. Beijing: Central Compliance and Translation Press.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Manoranjan, Mathew, George, Baum, Richard, and Ma, Rong, eds. 2007. Grassroots Democracy in India and China. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Nanz, Patrizia, and Steffek, Jens. 2005. “Assessing the Democratic Quality of Deliberation in International Governance: Criteria and Research Strategies.” Acta Politica 40: 368–83.Google Scholar
Nathan, Andrew. 2003. “Authoritarian Resilience.” Journal of Democracy 14: 6–17.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Lianjiang, Li. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo. 1994. “Delegative Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 5: 55–69.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe, and Whitehead, Laurence. 1986. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Ogden, Suzanne. 2002. Inklings of Democracy in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Oi, Jean. 1991. State and Peasant in Contemporary China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ottaway, Marina. 2003. Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Pan, Wei. 2003. “Toward a Consultative Rule of Law Regime in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 12(34): 3–43.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. 1971. The System of Modern Societies. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Peerenboom, Randall 2002. China's Long March toward Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pei, Minxin. 2006. China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Peng, Zhongzhao, Lan, Xue, and Ke, Kan. 2004. The Public Hearing System in China. Beijing: Qinghua University Press.Google Scholar
Potter, Pitman. 1994. “Riding the Tiger: Legitimacy and Legal Culture in Post-Mao China.” China Quarterly 138: 325–58.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael E., Cheibub, Jose Antonio, and Limongi, Fernando. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World: 1950–1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, Henry. 2003. Democratic Autonomy: Public Reasoning about the Ends of Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rodan, Garry, and Jayasuriya, Kanishka. 2007. “Beyond Hybrid Regimes: More Participation, Less Contestation in Southeast Asia.” Democratization 14(5): 773–94.Google Scholar
Rosanvallon, Pierre. 2008. Counter-Democracy: Politics in the Age of Distrust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Shawn. 2006. “Human Nature, Communication and Culture: Rethinking Democratic Deliberation in China and the West.” In The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China, ed. Leib, Ethan and He, Baogang. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Sanduao.com. 2006. “On Village Public Hearings in Fujian.” http://www.sanduao.com/danjian/JCDJ/nc/files/20.htm, accessed February 23, [year].Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1988. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. Translated by Kennedy, Ellen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Shen, Fei, Wang, Ning, Guo, Zhongshi, and Guo, Liang. 2009. “Online Network Size, Efficacy, and Opinion Expression: Assessing the Impacts of Internet Use in China.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 21(4): 451–76.Google Scholar
Shen, Ronghua, ed. 1988. Social Consultative Dialogue. Beijing: Spring and Autumn Press.Google Scholar
Shi, Tianjian. 1997. Political Participation in Beijing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Skilling, H.D., and Griffiths, F.. 1971. Interest Groups in Soviet Politics, N.J.: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Steiner, Jürg, Bachtiger, André, Sporndli, Markus, and Steenbergen, Marco R.. 2004. Deliberative Politics in Action: Analysing Parliamentary Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass. 2002. Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tan, Qingshan. 2006. “Deliberative Democracy and Village Self-government in China.” In The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China, ed. Leib, Ethan and He, Baogang. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 2003. “How Institutions Evolve: Insights from Comparative Historical Analysis.” In Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, ed. Mahoney, James and Rueschemeyer, Dietrich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Dennis F. 2008. “Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 11: 497–520.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2004. Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tsai, Lilly. 2007. Accountability without Democracy: Solidarity Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tsang, Steve. 2009. “Consultative Leninism: China's New Political Framework.” Journal of Contemporary China 18(62): 865–80.Google Scholar
Tucher, Aviezer. 2008. “Pre-Emptive Democracy: Oligarchic Tendencies in Deliberative Democracy.” Political Studies 56: 127–47.Google Scholar
Unger, Aryeh. 1981. “Political Participation in the USSR: YCL and CPSU.” Soviet Studies 34(1): 107–24.Google Scholar
Unger, Jonathan, and Chan, Anita. 2004. “The Internal Politics of an Urban Chinese Work Community: A Case Study of Employee Influence on Decision-making at a State-Owned Factory.” China Journal 52: 1–24.Google Scholar
Urbinati, Nadia. 2006. Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Quansheng. 2003. A Study of Legislative Hearing, Beijing: Beijing University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark E. 2002. “Deliberative Democracy.” In Democratic Theory Today, ed. Carter, April and Stokes, Geoffrey. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark E. 2006. “Democracy and the State.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, ed. Dryzek, John, Honig, Bonnie, and Phillips, Anne. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark. 2009. “Governance-Driven Democratization.” Critical Policy Analysis 3(1): 3–13.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Vol. 2. ed. Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wenling Department of Propoganda. 2003. Democratic Sincerely Talk: The Innovation from Wenling. Wenling: Wenling Department of Propaganda.Google Scholar
Yang, Dali. 2004. Remarking the Chinese Leviathan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2000. Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zakaria, Fareed. 2003. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Zhao, Suisheng. 2003. “Political Liberalization without Democratization: Pan Wei's Proposal for Political Reform.” Journal of Contemporary China 12: 333–55.Google Scholar
Zhejiang Province. 2005. Zhejiang Social Security Governance 21, June 28.Google Scholar
Zhou, Tianrong. 2007. “Deliberative Democracy and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.” Zhongguo Renmin Zhengxie Lilun Yanjiuhui Huikan 1: 18–21.Google Scholar
Zhu, Mang. 2004. Multiple Dimensions of Administrative Law. Beijing: Beijing University Press.Google Scholar