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This book is carefully researched and benefits by the authors access and ongoing monitoring of Chinese sources. He's able to capture nuance that others have missed. It's a particularly important work since it also addresses and is even caught up in a thread in international development literature that predicts that growth in a nation's wealth and in related differentiation of labor and interest groups will lead to democracy. A major thesis of the book is that this isn't happening in China because CPC regime stability requires side payments to various corrupt and well placed elites to remain in power AND that a major concern of the CPC is to maintain a monopoly of power. This is certainly important and well documented but doesn't really do enough to question the veracity of the core theory. In fact it's odd that after generations of U.S. policy failures predicated on a link between foreign aid, FDI, wealth generation and democracy that a major scholar would still have faith in this underlying thesis. It could be that U.S. post WW II successes in the democratization of Japan and Germany have framed our thinking but counter examples from Vietnam through Iraq and a rich literature on the various and unique paths to democracy even among the oldest democracies should prevent facile assumptions.
Other criticisms of Minxin Pei's otherwise excellent work should also be seen in light of its 2009 publication date. It was written before Xi Jinping assumed the office of General Secretary and publicly sought reforms of some of the practices at issue. One might even assume that he or his staff read Pei's work since he's targeting both he evils identified and some of the processes that support them. It remains destabilizing that so much of China's newfound wealth remains on eastern coastal provinces at the expense of the rest of the country. Since political stability is prized by an elite that saw the alternative in the Great Leap and GPCR Xi has supporters in his quest to wrest power from those interests whose greed works against ongoing stability. However, the quest for stability is also a block to those who would promote democracy even if corruption and rent seekers cease to block the way. Chinese elites I've met are democracy phobic in a manner not dissimilar to American Federalists watching the excesses of the French Revolution while favoring constitutional limitations like the Electoral College and Supreme Court. This is another reason we will not be witnessing a democratic transition in China anytime soon.
- Hardcover: 308 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 31, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0674021959
- ISBN-13: 978-0674021952
- Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
- Customer Reviews: 7 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,762,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1168 in Regional Geography
- #2512 in Asian History (Books)
- #2187 in Political Ideologies
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