Reflections on Chinese governance

Abstract

A modern political system consists of three sets of institutions: a modern, impersonal state, rule of law, and mechanisms for democratic accountability. China developed the modern state more than two millennia ago, but has yet to achieve a real rule of law limiting state power, and has no democratic accountability. Current Chinese government under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party replicates many features of dynastic rule, including top-down organization and upward, rather than downward, accountability. The system is unbalanced, with insufficient constraints on executive power, risking emergence of the ‘bad Emperor’ problem. The current anti-corruption campaign is unsustainable in the absence of a true rule of law. Transition to a more fully modern political system should sequence rule of law before democratic accountability, placing real constitutional limits on state power and only gradually opening up the system to greater political pluralism.