Panel 1. Goals and Trends of Contemporary Chinese Political Development

Transcription

1 Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences World Forum on China Studies Selected Papers from the 2 nd World Forum on China Studies (Abstracts) Panel 1 Goals and Trends of Contemporary Chinese Political Development Contents: 1. China s Fiscal System and Policy in the Reform Era: A Critical Literature Review in the Single Realm of Fiscal Issues By Philip Hsu (Taiwan, China,) 2. Habermas in China: Public Power, State Power, and the Transformation of the Chinese LifeWorld By David Kerr (United Kingdom) 3. Modern China: A Society in Transition Whither? By Thomas Meyer (Germany) 4. On the Reform of Old Age Insurance in the Period of Social Transformation By Keqin Sun (China) 5. Modern Values and Support for Democracy Among Chinese Citizens By Wang Zhengxu (Singapore)

2 Panel 1 The Goals and Trends of the Contemporary Chinese Political Development 1) China s Fiscal System and Policy in the Reform Era: A Critical Literature Review in the Single Realm of Fiscal Issues By Philip Hsu (Taiwan, China) Despite the proliferating studies in each issue area of China s fiscal system and policy in the reform era, there has been no comprehensive and synthetic analysis of the realm as a whole, for both the Chinese and English literature therein. Driven by this concern, this paper seeks to reorganize, derive inductions from, and critique the related literature in Chinese and English. By doing so, this paper intends to make the following three contributions: 1) to establish an integrative analytic framework helpful for classifying, dissecting, and evaluating the works in the single realm of China s fiscal issues; 2) to put forward in-depth analyses different from those available in current literature on some key issues, or to provide a preliminary conclusive assessment for those intensely debated controversies; and 3) propose new avenues of research that have received scant attention. The integrative analytic framework suggested here regroups current literature into four categories. Among the four categories, only the five issue areas under two categories both of which focus on the single realm of fiscal issues, instead of linking fiscal issues to other policies will be covered in this paper. The elaboration above suggests clearly that the main themes and issues covered in this paper revolve around the area of China s fiscal system and policy Since fiscal issues are central to the so-called state capacity, as first raised by Hu Anang and Wang Shaoguang, this paper seems to fit the general theme of the panel of construction of governing capacity. 2) Habermas in China: Public Power, State Power, and the Transformation of the Chinese Lifeworld By David Kerr (United Kingdom) Jürgen Habermas is Europe s leading theorist of the public sphere. In this theory Habermas takes Hegel s three spheres of social life family, civil, and state and examines how they are transformed in the transition from traditional to modern societies. In traditional societies the civil sphere is negligible, and the family and State

3 spheres predominate, though these exist largely separate from one another. The State is the sphere of politics and law; whilst the family is the sphere of private relations and private economy. With the shift to modern societies the boundaries between family and State are transformed by the emergence of the civil or public sphere. In economy this means the shift to market production and market relations; in politics it means the extension of legal and political recognition to the forces of civil society. But Habermas retains his roots to critical theory because of his characterisation of the state and the market as systems of coercion and control. This sets the context for a struggle between public power and state power as to the purposes of the public sphere: does it exist for the self-actualisation of civil society; or does it exist to make the market and the state stronger? In modern societies, though violence is still possible, this struggle is mainly conducted in the realm of consciousness and communication. The public sphere is made up in the first instance of discourse and opinion, though these exist in several layers. The first layer is the lifeworld, a term Habermas takes from Husserl. This means the foundational beliefs, images, symbols, myths, and narratives that the society tells about itself. In traditional societies these are the basic constructs out of which community is made, and they largely belong to the community and not to the State. With the shift to modernity public discourse emerges, which is both more extensive through the expansion of education, but also more structured by means of technology. Communication in this realm is about establishing the ethical validity, or invalidity, of certain actions and of language itself. This leads on to the final layer that of public opinion: Public opinion takes on a different meaning depending on whether it is brought into play as a critical authority in connection with the normative mandate that the exercise of social and political power be subject to publicity or as the object to be molded in connection with a staged display of, and manipulative propagation of, publicity in the service of persons, institutions, consumer goods, and programmes. (The Transformation of the Public Sphere, 2003: 236) Thus the struggle to say what the public sphere is, and is for, passes through several realms, from the foundational lifeworld, to ethical discourse, and finally to public opinion. The uncoupling of the lifeworld from the systems sphere the realms of money and power thus constitutes a powerful area of contestation between civil society and the realms of system. In the process the lifeworld becomes only one subsystem of discourse increasingly at odds with systemic rationalization: Depicted on the level of a systematic history of forms of mutual understanding, the irresistible irony of the world-historical process of enlightenment becomes evident: the rationalization of the lifeworld makes possible a heightening of systemic complexity, which becomes so hypertrophied that it unleashes system imperatives that burst the capacity of the lifeworld they instrumentalize (The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2, 2004: 155) A crucial question then becomes: what will hold society together in these circumstances? In the economic realm the answer is extensive commoditization, though as Marx correctly notes this is hardly any solution since as well as endless streams of commodities, human relations themselves become commoditized, accelerating the breakdown of the normative structures of lifeworld. In the political realm the answer is increasingly nationalism. That is as public and state

4 spheres struggle for the right to define ethical discourse and public opinion, varieties of nationalism are generated to try and surmount the centrifugal forces operating within society. The civic variety is essentially defensive: it is a mechanism of resistance against the destruction of lifeworld that draws on historical and biological images that validate the unity of the people. The state variety is instrumental: it seeks to create a bond between state and society that will allow for the development of the rational systems that the state requires for its own self-strengthening, as both an internal and external organisation of power. These arguments are relevant to the processes of social and political change in contemporary China, though as ever China presents a highly distinctive case. First, we might argue that China s long struggle with modernity has been occasioned by the depth, longevity, and power of the Chinese lifeworld. This is evident in the way that State-society relations, external relations, and human-spiritual relations were seen as a single, unified extension of the familial sphere; the most significant organising principle being the unity of opposites. As many theorists have noted, those who attempted to colonise China, soon found themselves colonised by this lifeworld; and its very success allowed China to present elements of rational systems bureaucracy, law, science, fiscal and monetary systems even as these remained subordinate within conventional normative structures. In the 20th century China has faced three successive waves of penetration from outside, each of which has necessitated a reconceptualisation of the sustainability of the Chinese lifeworld. Western imperialism and Soviet socialism both tried but failed to incorporate China into its system, occasioning differing forms of nationalist resistance. But in the reform era the lifeworld has faced its ultimate test: globalisation. If there was one force that might compel the transformation of the Chinese lifeworld, the likelihood is that it would have to be world system itself. Of course, there is at least a possibility that China will colonise globalisation, but this is intrinsically improbable. Rather China has entered into a conditional compromise with globalisation as a process of social and political self-strengthening. This, of course, has triggered yet another convulsion of nationalism, though this is necessarily conceived differently at societal and state levels. The progress of Chinese nationalism will be defined by the interaction of the three forces outlined above: a historically and biologically imagined defence of the properties of lifeworld in opposition to the realms of wealth and power, now increasingly organised at the global level; an ethical discourse of civic nationalism the reflects demands for legal recognition of the public sphere; and a public opinion debate, which will be conducted largely in terms defined by political and economic elites, notably through the use of mass communications. This paper will examine these problems of the inter-relationship of state and public spheres, and the transformation of the lifeworld in the face of China s embrace of globalisation. 3) Modern China: A Society in Transition Whither? By Thomas Meyer (Germany)

5 China of today, undisputed, is a country in the middle of an open transition process that is highly impressive in its economic dimension, but deficient in social and political respects. This is one of the key issues under discussion in the EU-China dialogues in the framework of the strategic partnership of the two policies. The finality of this transition process, however, so far remains undefined. This is a feature China shares with the EU. But, whereas the economic, social and political development of the EU occurs within the framework of a democratic polity that appears sustainable in terms of legitimacy, the Chinese transformation process is proceeding within an deeply contradictory political framework, that most probably will have to undergo deep changes, both in normative and in functional terms. The key question most of the external observers of the country in Europe pose is: How long can a still post-leninist type of government coexist side by side with a semi libertarian type of market economy? Which of the two subsystems will take the lead in the ongoing transition process? And: what kind of political and social orientations does such an unprecedented hybrid produce in the young generations that are socialized in it? Mere output-legitimacy, particularly under conditions of a highly uneven output distribution will, according to all experiences we have, not sufficed. How are the crucial actors of the country, above all the CPCh and the most influential academic and intellectual voices going to handle this growing contradiction? It seems that the transition process as of today is open to competing options on the basis of the current governance concept of the governing actors of the country, Obviously, both in theory and practice Chinese government is driven by an idea of good governance that, notwithstanding widespread corruption, is characterized by 1.) aiming at catering to the needs of the entire society and 2.) improving the legal-state quality of the country. The normative foundations for this are found in a mix of outgoing Marxist ideas and rediscovered genuine Chinese concepts like the ideas of Harmony and all under the heaven, which both allow for a more or less authoritarian mode of governance. Yet, good governance requires, as the Chinese government indirectly conceded in its White Paper on Democracy (2005) in addition to these two features also the gradual improvement of participation of the governed. This is the rationale of the paradigm of Micro-Democracy as offered in the White Paper. China has ratified the UN-Covenant on Social, Economic an Cultural Rights of 1966 already and is about to ratify also the second part of this Covenant, the Pact on Civil and Political Rights. As the ratification of both these Covenants by 149 countries prove, the key substance of the basic rights they declare is broadly of a culturally neutral nature. Special cultural traditions need to be vitalized within the framework they provide. They are, however, not neutral with respect to the economic development of each country. Therefore, the social and economic rights the implementation of which requires high levels of resources, are conceived as duties of conduct, i.e. each government is obliged to do the best it can according to its available resources. The civil and political rights, in contrast, are meant to be obligation of result, i.e. they need to be fully implemented without delay. The implementation of civil and political rights alone, as in the case of the USA, makes for he a llibertarian type of Democracy.

6 The ratification of social and political rights alone is, more or less, consistent with authoritarian rule. The acceptance of both types of rights constitutes the model of social democracy. The latter model is what the EU has enshrined in its treaties and understands as its political project identity. The combination of political participation and social basic rights is, as understood by the EU, a concept for both the internal structure of national or regional polities and for the arena o global governance. Even if the Chinese government is inclined to interpret civil and political basic rights in the same way as social and economic rights as obligations of conduct- this would still make 1.) its understanding of good governance and of global democracy through fair multilateralism more consistent, 2.) provide a credible objective for the transition process of the country and 3.) substantiate the political basis for the EU-China strategic partnership. Most observers in Europe wish, that China goes ahead on this avenue. 4) On the Reform of Old Age Insurance in the Period of Social Transformation By Keqin Sun (China) In the past twenty years or more, two great changes have happened in our country: one is the socio-economic transformation, and the other is the change of population growth pattern. Firstly, the administrative system in which each member is subordinated to certain kind of social organization has been broken. Many unit-men has transformed into social men. With deepening of the reform of enterprises, their role of providing for pension has been mostly taken by the whole society. The system of pension provided by units has not been adaptable to the needs of competition between enterprises as well as labor mobility. Secondly, there are nowadays about 8 million rural people flowing into cities each year, which sum to 200 million. Those people have become the major resources of industrial force in our country, but they still have long been excluded from the social pension system. Thirdly, the land has been used to prevent from the risk of aging and provide a living source for the aged, which is a major way of providing for old age. The trend of urbanization inevitably brings about decrease of plow land, as well as the decline of farmers dependence on agriculture. These have greatly weakened the function of land as a source of providing for the aged. Especially, our country is undergoing a trend of aging and senility, rapid aging and aging which antecedes richness. Thus, our old age pension system is facing a severe challenge and pressure which are aroused by fastigium of aging. Our country is a developing country which has a distinct structure of rural-urban dichotomy, an unbalanced economic development between the west and the east and rural population in the overwhelming majority. The difference between residence registrations, ownership of work units and status of occupation gives rise to the following issues to the current old age insurance system: (a) Lower socialization and coverage of old age insurance and insufficiency of justice; (b) Overall planning of old

7 age insurance at lower level; (c) Not optimistic in the prospects of sustainable development. First, there has been a heavy burden of latent debt (i.e. cost of shifting); Second, old age insurance funds raised are unable to make ends meet;third, the enlarged gap of income also bring about severe negative influence on the old age insurance system; (d) Long stagnation and even backwardness of social old age insurance in rural area. Establishing a social insurance system for old age is inevitably conditioned by a nation s politics, economy, culture, population, social structure, regional difference, traditional security system, national tradition etc. In such conditions as lower level of economic development, radical gap between urban and rural areas, and weak in management and technical support, it should take us as long as several decades to build a sound social security system. It is and will be a very difficult task to improve our social security system nowadays and in the near future because of the following reasons: (1) Population aging will further increase payment pressure of pension; (2) It will be more urgent to build a sound social security system which links up city and countryside with increase of the degree of urbanization; (3) Diversified forms of employment makes more and more employers in non-public sector as well as free lancers be listed in pension insurance plan as soon as possible and so on. Accelerating the development of social security system for old age is not only an important task for building a well-off society in an all-round way, but also an important measure to construct a harmonious socialist society. A Persistent, rapid, coordinated as well as healthy development of national economy has strengthened our integrated competitiveness, and put the scientific concept of human oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development in effect. The social security system, which has been established after groping for a long time and adaptable to the situation of our country, provides various advantageous conditions for the sustainable development of our social security system for old age. The goal of reform of our social security system should be widely-covered, low-level, multi-layer and linking-up, that is, we should have a comprehensive security system, different security levels, flexible security methods and linking-up security pattern. And thus the old age security for majority of people can be ensured. It is not only the need of social stability but also an important goal of social development. Therefore, we must solve the issue of linking-up of old age security between urban and rural areas as soon as possible and make migrant workers listed in different old-age social security system, promote the development of social security system for old age in rural area, advance synchronizingly the reform of pension insurance system in both government departments and institutions, increase financial support, try various channels to raise the funds to solve the problem of cost of transformation, open up the new ways of increasing the value of social security funds, and gradually postponed the age of retirement by stages. 5) Modern Values and Support for Democracy Among Chinese Citizens By Wang Zhengxu (Singapore)

8 Modern Values and Support for Democracy among Chinese Citizens Scholars have long argued that certain values are modern, such as stressing equality (as opposed to hierarchy and patriarchy), independence (as opposed to obedience), and self-determination (as opposed to submission to God or fate). They argue that people with such modern values are more likely to support and participate in democratic institutions. Social scientists argue that with economic development through industrialization, urbanization, spread of education and mass communication, the society as a whole will embrace such modern values. This way, a traditional society is transformed into a modern society, and a modern society is one that is ready for democratic government. On the other hand, in Asia people have long argued that traditional values such as patriarchy, obedience, and conflict avoidance are part of the so-called Asian Values. They argue that because Asian people s values are distinctive from the West, Western style democracy is ill-fitted for Asian societies. Our recent research of values find that, following recent economic development and social modernization, citizens in East Asian societies such as China are discarding some of the traditional values while acquiring more and more modern values. They are more likely to support equality and individual choices, for example. The question that remains is, do such value changes have impacts on people s preferences of political systems? For example, are Chinese citizens with modern values more supportive of democracy? Analyzing data of a national survey in China between 2002 and 2003 (the China portion of East Asian Barometer), in this paper I argue that modern values do not directly translate into explicit support for democracy. That is, people with stronger modern values may not prefer democracy more than other people do. But nevertheless, people with stronger modern values are indeed more actively participating in their communities and in politics. In conclusion, I argue that in China, with the rise of modern values, what we will immediately see is not open demands for democratic transition, but a more active and vibrant civil society. Source: 11/2006