Toward a Consultative Rule of Law Regime in China

Abstract

Why has China not embraced democracy? This essay provides a three-part explanation. (1) By discussing the conceptual and functional differences between democracy and rule of law, it shows a theoretical alternative for China's political option, which is legalist instead of democratic. (2) By reviewing China' particular social setting and the related political culture, it argues that China's tendency towards the assumed alternative is strong, historical, and logical. (3) Inspired by the experiments of Hong Kong and Singaore polities, it specifies six pillars of the assumed political alternative--a'consultative rule of law regime', which is a rule of law regime supplemented by democracy rather than a democracy supplemented by rule of law. This essay ends with a brief discussion of the feasibility of the suggested regime, with regard to the conditions of current Chinese politics. Therefore, this essay is not only an explanation of China's failure to become democratic, but also a normative justification for a 'mixed' regime out of the Chinese tradition of civil service via examination and the Western tradition of legalism and liberalism via the separation of power to form checks and balances. It represents a Chinese ideal of a political civilization that is radically different from the one usually favored in the present Western world.