Monday, April 27, 2020

In China, Unlike Trump’s America, Political Legitimacy Is Built On Competence And Experience

China’s experience may usher in a paradigm shift from “democracy versus autocracy” to “good governance versus bad governance.”


A positive article about the Chinese political system. The ancient rulers felt the need for good governance is they were to retain their positions, so they rule for the people. The disasterous communist experiment has faded and China returned to its traditional system of governance but with some democratic elements. In its meritocracy, where only the best and most talented politicians rise to the top, who will then go on to provide good governance.

In our system, we have the wealthy elites running the show who have never had to serve society, only themselves. It's these wealthy oligarchs who control our politicians.

Mark Curtis Tweet

UK elite society is a big revolving door, between media & govt, military & corporations, corporations & state. UK functions more as a private club than a country. It's an oligarchy. With democratic elements but which are largely a facade. Pretence of "democracy" keeps us in line.


These two points help us better understand why the Chinese sense of legitimacy is vastly different from the Western one. China is not a typical nation-state but rather a deeply historical and civilizational state. It is an amalgam of the world’s oldest continuous civilization and a huge modern state with its sense of legitimacy rooted deeply in its history. An apt analogy would be to something like the Roman Empire, if it had endured into the 21st century ― with regional and cultural diversities, a modern economy, a centralized government and a population nearly equal to that of 100 average-size European nations combined, speaking thousands of different dialects while sharing one written language.

Huffington Post

In China, Unlike Trump’s America, Political Legitimacy Is Built On Competence And Experience

5 comments:

Marian Ruccius said...

China's civil service is riven with corruption and nepotism. The Chinese delay in making public the Corona virus has likely killed many tens of thousands, both in China and abroad, and China's only real success has been in brutally controlling the flow of information. China's only example of good government (and it is significant one) has been through its active use of the power of the purse. Trump has obviously not governed well, but it will still not be possible to hold up China as an example of good government. We have been here before -- this is no different that all that silliness about the benefit of "Asian VALUES" in the 1990s. ULTIMATELY, this battle of competing propaganda narratives will be settled by real conditions POST-CIVIL. The real story is how European narratives are collapsing.

Marian Ruccius said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marian Ruccius said...

Post COVID, I meant

Peter Pan said...

Corrupt oligarchy versus slightly less corrupt autocracy. From a Machiavellian perspective, the two could find a way to get along.

Kaivey said...

I think it's how nature works. Some people say it's never been any different.