Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:44:03.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How democratic are Chinese grassroots deliberations? An empirical study of 393 deliberation experiments in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2018

Dezhi Tong  and
Baogang He
Dezhi Tong*
Affiliation:
Tianjin Normal University, China
Baogang He
Affiliation:
Deakin University, Australia and Tianjin Normal University, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Chinese public hearings or consultations have been subject to numerous debates, doubts, and scepticism about the existence of Chinese deliberative democracy. More empirical evidence, however, is required about these debates before we can offer any meaningful account of the nature, characteristics, and direction of Chinese deliberation. In addition, although there have been many case studies on grassroots deliberative democracy, such studies are intellectually isolated from each other in the sense that they do not comprise a statistical unit. To overcome this deficiency, we developed a new research method for studying grassroots deliberation by collecting and validating the existing case studies, thereby making them a statistical unit. This paper aims to offer a big-picture perspective and the national statistical trend behind the uneven development of grassroots deliberative democracy. It develops an intellectual framework to assess whether grassroots deliberation is democratic. By collecting, validating, and coding 393 cases of Chinese grassroots deliberations, we have assessed Chinese grassroots deliberation, confirmed the cases’ democratic attributes, and provided a solid statistical result. Although there is strong evidence to support the claim that these grassroots deliberation experiments are democratic, there remain some variations, nuances, and shortcomings. The full picture is not simple, but instead provides a mixed perspective.

Keywords

Authoritarian deliberationgrassroots deliberationdeliberation experimentsempirical studylocal deliberative democracy
Type
Special Section, Authoritarian Deliberation Revisited (Edited by Baogang He and Hendrik Wagenaar)
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 630 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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.)

References

Bao, X (2013) On the construction of institution and value of deliberative democracy in practice. Journal of Tianjin CPC School 46, 3–8.Google Scholar
Dahl, R (1997) Procedural democracy. In: Goodin, R and Pettit, P (eds), Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 109–111.Google Scholar
Dryzek, J (2011) Foundations and Frontiers of Deliberative Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Du, H (2017) From tool to mechanism: the growth process and limitation of deliberative democracy in rural areas – a case study of a village in Southern Jiangsu. Journal of China Agricultural University (Social Sciences Edition) 34, 84–92.Google Scholar
Editorial Group (2015) Selected Typical Cases of Grassroots Deliberative Democracy. Beijing: People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
Elster, J (ed.) (1998) Deliberating Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fishkin, J (2017) Deliberative Democracy Decision Beyond Polity, see Fuguo H. Handbook of Multiple Deliberative Democracy in Policy-making: Practicing Deliberative Democracy in China. Shanghai: Fudan University Press.Google Scholar
Fishkin, J and Laslett, P (eds) (2003) Debating Deliberative Democracy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Fishkin, J, He, B, Luskin, B and Siu, A (2010) Deliberative democracy in an unlikely place: deliberative polling in China. British Journal of Political Science 40, 435–448.Google Scholar
He, B (2006) Participatory and deliberative institutions in China. In: Ethan, L and He, B (eds), The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 175–196.Google Scholar
He, B (2007) Rural Democracy in China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
He, B (2008) Deliberative Democracy: Theory, Method and Practice. Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
He, B (2018) Deliberative citizenship and deliberative governance: a case study of one deliberative experimental in China. Citizenship Studies 22, 294–311.Google Scholar
He, B and Thøgersen, S (2010) Giving the people a voice? Experiments with consultative authoritarian institutions in China. Journal of Contemporary China 19, 675–692.Google Scholar
He, B and Wang, F (2018) Democratizing the institute of letters and visits in China: a deliberative democracy perspective. Journal of Zhejiang University: Humanities and Social Sciences 48, 5–17.Google Scholar
He, B and Warren, M (2011) Authoritarian deliberation: the deliberative turn in Chinese political development. Perspectives on Politics 9, 269–289.Google Scholar
He, B and Wu, J (2016) The political legitimacy of public deliberation: evidence from the lien citizen public services satisfaction survey. Zhejiang Social Sciences 2016, 26–38.Google Scholar
He, B and Wu, J (2017) Social conflicts and the origin of local deliberative democracy at Chinese cities. Open Times 3, 101–24.Google Scholar
Hess, DE (2009) Controversy in the Classroom: The Democratic Power of Discussion. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kornreich, Y, Vertinsky, I and Potter, PB (2012) Consultation and deliberation in China: the making of China's health-care reform. The China Journal 68, 176–203.Google Scholar
Leonard, M (2008) What Does China Think? New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Lin, S (2007) Citizen deliberation and the development of grassroots democracy in China. Academic Monthly 39, 13–20.Google Scholar
Linz, JJ (2000) Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Ma, D and Hsu, S-C (2018) The political consequences of deliberative democracy and electoral democracy in China: an empirical comparative analysis from four counties. The China Review 18, 1–31.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, R (2011) China's “networked authoritarianism”. Journal of Democracy 32, 32–46.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, J (1999) Every day talk in the deliberative system. In Macedo, S (ed.), Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–211.Google Scholar
O'Flynn, I and Curato, N (2015) Deliberative democratization: a framework for systemic analysis. Policy Studies 36, 298–313.Google Scholar
Qin, X and He, B (2018) Deliberation, demobilization and limited empowerment: a survey study on participatory pricing in China. Japanese Journal of Political Science 19, 694–708.Google Scholar
Rodan, G (2018) Participation without Democracy: Containing Conflict in Southeast Asia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Tan, H (2013) Deliberative democracy in China: a sociology of knowledge perspective. Economic and Political Studies 1, 156–177.Google Scholar
Tan, S-H (2014) The concept of Yi (义) in the Mencius and problems of distributive justice. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92, 82–105.Google Scholar
Tang, B (2014) Development and prospects of deliberative democracy in China: the dimensions of deliberative capacity building. Journal of Chinese Political Science 19, 115–132.Google Scholar
Tang, B (2015) The discursive turn: deliberative governance in China's urbanized villages. Journal of Contemporary China 24, 137–157.Google Scholar
Teets, JC (2013) Let many civil societies bloom: the rise of consultative authoritarianism in China. The China Quarterly 213, 19–38.Google Scholar
Tianjin Social Work Association (2017) Selected Cases of Community Social Work: Democratic Deliberation Chapter. Beijing: China Society Press.Google Scholar
Truex, R (2017) Consultative authoritarianism and its limits. Comparative Political Studies 50, 329–361.Google Scholar
Tsang, S (2009) Consultative Leninism: China's new political framework. Journal of Contemporary China 18, 865–880.Google Scholar
Unger, J, Chan, A and Chung, H (2014) Deliberative democracy at China's grassroots: case studies of a hidden phenomenon. Politics & Society 42, 513–535.Google Scholar
Warren, M (2017) A problem-based approach to democratic theory. American Political Science Review 111, 39–53.Google Scholar
Weber, R and Froehlich, T (2016) Are there elements of deliberative democracy in China: comments on the discussion of the Zeguo experiment. Politische Viertel Jahresschrift 5, 550.Google Scholar
Yan, X (2011) Regime inclusion and the resilience of authoritarianism: the local people's political consultative conference in post-Mao Chinese politics. The China Journal 66, 53–75.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z (2015) A case of deliberative democracy in the grassroots governance: establishment and operation of Tondewei Public Consultative Committee. Jianghan Forum, 67–70.Google Scholar
Zhejiang United Front Theory Research Institution (2015) Grassroots Deliberative Democracy Cases. Hangzhou: Hangzhou Publishing House.Google Scholar