Mrs. Carlson
English 11
10 May, 2014
The Democratic Change in China
China is the largest developing country in today’s world and the rapid growth of the Chinese economy has attracted attention from all over the world. Some people falsely think that China is a country that China is only pursuing their economic reform, but without any democratic changes. On the contrary, China actually has a long history of democratic reforms. China has a different way of democratic reform that different from western-style democracy, which made Westerners think China is a powerful country with limitations in democracy. However, my point of view is that China is not limiting their democratic change, and China is utilizing a distinctive form of democracy.
For Americans, democracy is something that they are really proud of because every people can do whatever they want to do. For Chinese, democracy (translated into Chinese as "minzhu", or "people as masters") is not a concept that “lives” in Chinese culture. In fact, it is completely opposite to Confucian idea, which stresses harmony and obedience.
China actually has some history of democratic reform since the founding of the nation before1949. Chinese democratic pioneer Dr. Sun Yat-Sen considered democracy as an inevitable step in the advancement of civilization. He advocated to Chinese people: “This world trend is vast and mighty. To follow its suit shall prosper, whereas to oppose it shall perish (qtd in Yu).” He led the first democratic revolution to defeat Qing Dynasty in order to build the whole new democratic China. However, the democratic revolution that Sun tried for finally did not succeed (qtd in Nathan).
Chairman Mao Zedong was another advocator of Chinese democratic politics. Followi...
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...ences of Chinese political development, “I may not believe that China’s democratic model is completely mature or successful. But at least, I can claim that Chinese way of democracy is extremely distinctive from the Western liberal democracy. Different contexts and cultures from Eastern and Western countries decide the differences in democracy. Therefore, it is hard to explain the Chinese way of democracy through the existing Western democratic theories” (qtd in Yu). The Chinese democratic form basically fits into the process of modernization in Chinese society. It helps Chinese people to maintain social stability, protect citizens’ basic human rights, and promote China’s belief in good governance. To China, democracy could be an opportunity to not only bring good fortune to the Chinese people, but also contribute greatly to the advancement of democratic theory.
Before the Communist Revolution, China had a dynastic system for their form of government. A dynastic system consisted of China being ruled by emperors and it started around 221 BC. The first known dynasty in China is the Shang Dynasty. The social classes included the upper class of nobles, the working class, and slaves. In the Shang Dynasty, China was well- known for their well- organized armies and the chariots they used. Their system of writing consisted of pictures called ideograms, pictograms and phonograms. The dynastic system left China in 1911 when the Qing Dynasty ended. A republican form of government was introduced where warlords governed the country. This type of government was weak for China and Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Nationalist Party, searched for help from other countries to try to bring down the warlords. Unfortunately, western countries did not give their help, and China went to the Soviet Union for help instead. The Soviet Union agreed to help them out but they pushed for China to become communist. This decision eventually led to the civil war that occurred in China.
China is the story of a County that tried to contain their citizens from the outside world, tried to make the people work for basically no pay, set up inhuman laws, and other terrible deeds. But the scary thing is that they got away with it. The government is too powerful to be questioned and it will stay that until people find out about these . That is the only way China will be a fair and just country.
China's transition from the leadership under the iron fist of Mao Zedong to the more liberal Deng Xiao Ping gave the People's Republic a gradual increase in economic freedom while maintaining political stability. During Mao's regime, the country focused on bolstering and serving the community, while subsequently encumbering individual growth and prosperity. Deng advocated a more capitalist economic ideology, which established China as an economic force in the global community while endowing its citizens with more liberties and luxuries than previously granted.
America's Democracy The United States of America is a republic, or representative democracy. Democracy, a word that comes to us from Greek, literally means the people rule (Romance, July 8). This broad definition leaves unanswered a few important details such as who are the people, how shall they rule, and what should they rule on (July 8). Defining the answers to those questions means defining a model for a democratic system.
In “Democracy” by E.B. White, White describes what Democracy is, and he uses metaphors throughout his response to show both the positive and negative characteristics of Democracy. White supports Democracy, because overall, Democracy emboldens equality among all in the sense that one person should not have a biased advantage over the other. Equality stimulates privacy, which then gives people a sense of significance. In addition, White stresses the idea that Democracy is very heavy on citizens: not only do the government officials have influence in the system, but citizens have a say in the system as well. This allows pompous people to not have too much egotism in themselves because Democracy opposes that. Despite the fact that White has pride in Democracy due to many positive aspects, White also metaphorically points out a few
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Democracy is a form of government by the people; especially: rule of the majority(Webster). This is what the United States is represented as, and this is based on the United States Constitution from which the United states draws all legal powers. In Robert Dahls book How democratic Is the American Constitution? He challenges this idea by trying to appeal to his readers in a way that they may view the United States Constitution in a different light. Dahl does this by pointing out flaws that the Constitution has and, draws on facts based on the other democracies around the world that the United States is compared too. He points out how many democratic ideas and innovations have a occurred since the conception of the American Constitution yet it has only adopted some of those idea.
China has been ruled by the Communist Party ever since. It was the events between 1946 and 1964 that strengthened communism in China. At the end of World War II, the Nationalist Party (GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) raced for power in China. The chairman of the Communist Party was Mao Zedong and their army was known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Nationalist’s were led by Chiang Kai-shek and their army was the Kuomintang.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
people on to the side of the CCP. The CCP’s victory was also down to
The topic of democracy in China is a highly controversial topic. Although China has not democratised, it has done well in the global situation amongst its democratic competitors. Since the path to democracy is different for each country, we cannot expect that China would follow the same path or same model of democracy as the western nations. This essay will look at what democracy is and how it can be placed in a Chinese context as well as looking at the proponents and opponents of democracy in China. It will also look at whether China is democratising by focusing on village elections, globalisation and the emergence of a civil society. These specific topics were chosen because they will help provide good evidence and arguments to the topic of democratisation in China. The main argument in this essay will be that although China is implementing some changes that can be seen as the beginning of a road to democracy, there contribution should not be over estimated. China still has a long way to go before it can be considered that it is democratising. The small changes are good but China still has a long road ahead of itself to achieve democracy.
Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...
Finally, the United States political system has a strong structural structure but in China their people always work together to be the best and stand out in the world. It is predicted that China will one day be the largest economy-growing country in the world. They continually grow and rebalance their world to be the best. The growth of the economy will depend on the Chinese government's comprehensive economic reforms that more quickly accelerate China's transition to a free market economy. Consumer demand, rather than exporting, is the main engine of economic growth; boost productivity and innovation; address growing income disparities; and enhance environmental protection.
Democracy is robust, widely accepted and highly anticipated around the world. It is the triumphant form of government; dominantly used in Europe, North and South and America and becoming reformed and taking new roots in Africa and Asia. Although the term democracy is based on its Greek origin, demos kratos, meaning people rule, the term cannot be simply understood as such. Due to vast coverage, the adaptation of democracy has varied greatly, whether regionally, nationally, by state or through different branches of government. Perhaps this can be advantageous when the different categorizations listed above can use democracy to rule and suit themselves best, but other factors, such as globalization and neoliberalism, has caused the need for
Democracy has come to mean a principle under whose flag has most of the developed countries aced in their race for Imperialism. It has gone beyond all previous governing systems and has made room for progress and development. By offering free and fair elections, democracy has redefined human dignity and patriotism. It has also helped to improve decision-making among the citizens, and brought down the crime level. Democracy is for sure the most fitting among the other types of government, and needs to be implemented fully for effective functioning of a state.
In the website http://www.wmd.org/about/current-challenges/current-challenges-democracy it states how Democratic progress has increased around the world such as; a downfall of authoritarian military regimes in Latin, the demolishing of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and the fall of the Communist System and Berlin Wall. All of these stories show that democracy does not come from itself; the website continues by showing how democracy grows within countries by progressively institutionalizing, constructing political processes, and distributing the universal values that are inherent ...