Description
Book SynopsisIn 1989, most observers believed that China's political reformprocess had been violently short-circuited, but few would now disputethat China is in a very important transition. Central to thistransition has been an extraordinary change in the formal intellectualconception of democracy.' In this book, Yijiang Dingpresents a multi-dimensional picture of China at the politicalcrossroads. Chinese Democracy looks at the significant change in thestate-society relationship in contemporary China in three interrelatedareas: intellectual, social, and cultural. Drawing heavily on recentChinese scholarship, Ding shows that the emergent theory on the dualismof state and society is contemporaneous with a new cognitive andcultural appreciation of the people's independence from stateauthority. Is China moving toward liberal democracy? Does Westernengagement with
Table of ContentsFigures and Tables
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: Democracy in the Chinese Context
2 Pre-Tiananmen Intellectual Rethinking of State and Society
3 Post-Tiananmen Discussions
4 Emerging Civil Society: Associations
5 Reorganising Rural Society: Village Self-Government
6 Cultural Distinction and Psychological Independence
7 Conclusion: Theory and Reality
Notes
Glossary of Chinese Terms
Bibliography of English-language Sources
Bibliography of Chinese Sources
Index
