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China: Market economy and dictatorship still co-exist
04/2005 |
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[ China ]
Market economy and dictatorship still co-exist
The People’s Republic of China has moved on from the planned economy since 1978. Doing so has set in motion massive growth. New social strata have emerged, education has become a means for getting ahead and people today tend to be much more mobile. Many observers believe that it is inevitable that the dominance of the Communist Party (CP) will therefore yield to a democratic system soon. This conclusion is probably hasty. Admittedly, social change has made numerous institutional adjustments necessary. Nonetheless, Gunter Schubert of Tübingen University believes it is still unclear whether the new trends will undermine single-party-dominance or even stabilise it for some time to come.
This question was debated at an international conference in Loccum (Germany) in February. Participants examined individual Chinese reforms closely. According to Thomas Bernstein of Columbia University, the CP introduced elections for village committees, the lowest administrative level in the country, in the late 1980s in a reaction to growing conflicts between party cadres and farmers over taxes and duties. In Bernstein’s view, the quality of such elections has improved over time providing local administrations with greater legitimacy. Farmers think local administrations should represent the villages against the next administrative level. However, Bernstein argues, the oppressive tax burden still can only be lessened by transfers from rich coastal provinces to poor rural areas.
The CP has also introduced elections at the lowest level in cities. The social safety net (with schools, kindergartens, housing, pension schemes) linked to state-run companies has disappeared. Moreover, mobility has loosened family ties. Therefore the CP decided to define “neighbourhoods” with elected councils, says Thomas Heberer from the University of Duisburg-Essen. These councils are meant to strengthen social security and cohesion – as well as to increase social control. They determine who meets the conditions to obtain welfare.
Both reforms made conflicts an issue of local bodies and are meant to free up the State to pursue its management function. This is supported by establishing a social security system in the cities and by the CP’s most recent decision to do more in support of disadvantaged regions. It is conceivable that local authorities will thus become more reliably legitimised without triggering more demands for democracy.
In contrast, Robert Heuser of the University of Cologne says that legal reforms indicate an inherent momentum. For instance, some rights of citizens towards the state have been formally defined. It is true that they are granted from above, that the judiciary is not independent, and that government institution still relapse into arbitrarily abusing people. Nonetheless, citizens are increasingly asserting their rights against the authorities. According to Heuser, this may lead to society starting to push for more rights of its own accord.
On the whole, Gunter Schubert from Tübingen interprets the political reforms in China as an attempt to make government more efficient by consultation, without giving up the CP’s monopoly on decision-making. The extent to which this can work was the subject of debate in Loccum. Those present agreed that the central government is still widely accepted and that political discontent is mainly directed at lower levels of government. Rural protests are contained locally and pose no risk to the party because they do not enjoy urban support. Frustrated elites, on the other hand, would make the crucial difference, emphasised Jean-Pierre Cabestan from the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in Paris. However, the better-off have so far benefited from communist policy. As long as the economy keeps growing, market economy and reformed single-party rule may continue to co-exist.
Bernd Ludermann
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