Read Online The Perfect Dictatorship: China In The 21st Century Drafted By Stein Ringen Contained In Paperback

is the term proposed by the author for the kind of dictatorship we are witnessing in China nowadays, 'The Perfect Dictatorship: China in thest Century' is a cleareyed assessment about China and its government, Stein Ringen is not a sinologist, and he does not have any previous experience studying China, His is an outsider's perspective, He nevertheless avoids naivety and admits complexity without sacrificing integrity, Ringen sees a ruthlessness in China's treatment of its governed, which is too often neglected when superficially engaged observers or those with a stake in promoting a watereddown brand propagate their views.
He makes a clear distinction from the outset: China is not merely an authoritarian state, it is a dictatorship built on control,

China is a partystate, and like all other party states its first order priority is perpetuating the ruling Party's authority, Unlike other partystates, the Chinese leadership have been able to offer their subjects something in return for limiting their freedom: increased if unequally distributed material prosperity, As Ringen sees it, there is a tension between the partystate as ideological and the partystate as pragmatic, The current trend is towards reasserting ideology, and a restrictive Chinese brand of ideological control at that,

After self perpetuation, China's two most pressing objectives are national glory and territorial integrity, Each of these manifest in different ways, but they are both viewed as indisputable national rights, Worryingly, China combines paranoia with assertiveness in its interactions with the world, Although Ringen sees no evidence of desire to militarily expand its borders beyond the SCS and other claimed territories, that is, the leadership have stirred nationalism and chauvinistic behaviour among its populace with provocative and uncompromising speech and actions.
In international relations, 'what is giving China clout in the world is bigness more than performance, . . crude magnitudes and numbers that come with it, rather than qualitative development or civilisation', Domestically, China is operating as a twotiered society: one urbanised, educated, and affluent the other rural and poor,

In his analysis of China's economy, Ringen brings his plain but lucid voice to break down complexity, He divides the production side of the economy into roughly/state and private, The private economy is comprised of mostly 'small and medium sized family firms', State enterprises are also 'embedded in some kind of market context', where these enterprises have been 'relieved of their previous welfare responsibilities and are mostly subject to profit expectations'.
Control over the economy's arteries, the banking system, remains firmly in state control, Credit is the main way of raising capital, as opposed to other financial markets, Strategic sectors defence, energy, petrochemicals etc, and many pillar industries machinery, automobiles, information technology, construction etc, are also controlled by either central or local government, All land is in public ownership, Prices are set by the state, not the market,

For all its achievements, China's economic growth has not yielded equitable per capita income growth, is largely superficial investment led, and operates as an assembly line and imitator rather than a genuine innovator.
Ringen posits that China's social, economic, and political development has been 'effective but not efficient',

Ringen is particularly strong analysing China's taxation revenues and corresponding public service delivery, He carefully outlines a ferociously extractive state

at work which exploits its subjects through wage suppression, land usage expropriation, and regressive taxation, Chinese citizens' quality of life are nowhere near proportionate to economic growth, Resources are controlled and siphoned off towards the Party who have enriched themselves at the expense of the Chinese people,

After a discussion about the differentials between pragmatism and ideology, Ringen goes on to give his overview of Chinese politics, He puts forth three hypotheses to explain the Chinese political system: the triviality hypothesis, the welfare hypothesis, and the power hypothesis,

The triviality thesis asserts that the Chinese state possess only two objects: regime perpetuation and protecting territorial integrity, There is nothing more than maintaining these two objectives the Chinese state is selfserving and everything else is subservient, In his characteristically clear voice, Ringen hits the mark by identifying the Chinese leaderships' thinking: 'rulers hold up the perpetuation of the regime as a purpose in its own right with no hesitation or embarrassment'.
The received wisdom about inaccessible and opaque deliberations behind high walls is laid bare when boiled to its essential components,

Ringen then outlines his welfare hypothesis, It's a selfexplanatory thesis which claims the Chinese state's purpose is to serve the people, He places this ambition within the Chinese cultural tradition, however, by exploring contemporary officials claims which purport continuity between China's present and an older idea found in its imperial history the notion of social harmony.
The continuity adds credence to the claim to serve the people,

Rounding out his three theses is the power state theory, In this incarnation, the state is ideological and a Partystate seeks a higher objective, All of the state machinery are used to seek this objective, Citizens have a duty of obedience and are to serve the state and its ruling authority,

It is interesting that someone from outside the Chinawatching club was able to so accurately assess the current state of affairs and political ambitions, Despite many writing off his work as prejudiced scholarship, Ringen's analysis of China's political system is accurate and uncompromising, Where others saw liberal economic or political tendencies he saw the truth: the Chinese state is built on unchallengeable central power and control over its subjects, Ringen leaves us with two uncomfortable trajectories: 'If the Chinese state continues to operate as a custodian of economic growth and political control, and does so effectively, it is likely to remain dictatorial but pragmatic.
If it becomes dependent on ideology and embraces a narrative in which persons are subsumed in the nation, it will have made itself into a totalitarian state of the most sinister kind, the kind in which persons are on 'the masses' and do not matter individually'.
Let us all hope he is wrong, George Orwell, in motion. A great summary of what is happening in China that tries to take into account also the possibility that China is a genuine and nice state that opens up to the world.
However, under the weight of the presented evidence, it is clear that the stateparty either maintains its pragmatic course or turns into a fascistlike regime based on nationalistic ideology.
Great comparison with other nations in the region that with a lot less achieved more that points to the fact that why China is so fascinating is mainly just its size, not its skill.
And as we know quantity is not always quality, People's democratic dictatorship 人民民主专政 人民民主專政 is a phrase incorporated into the Constitution of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong, the then leader of the Communist Party of China CPC.
Whilst generally correct and insightful, the perfect dictatorship isn't the most engagingly written book of political analysis out there,
I did learn some stuff though, so it was worth the relatively minor timesink, Really helpful for me to have a clear sight about why's everything going on in China, As someone grown up there, I was mostly blinded and didn't have the chance to really think about these profound connections in our societies, our roots, since most of us take this twisted connection between the party and people's lives as granted.
Insightful overall. Mizerná úroveň překladu knize velmi ublížila, This was a pretty dry read, but I guess that was to be expected, This is not my field in any way, and I have read very little about political theory, so this review should probably be ignored, However

I found the discussion of hypotheses quite interesting, particularly the arguments about the Triviality, Welfare and Power Hypotheses, However, these discussion were few and far between,

There was a lot of discussion on the state of China and its politics, This was occasionally wellevidenced and convincing best example of this was the censorship section, But there were sections that were either so lacking in information that I don't see the point of inclusion, or just lacked conviction, For example, a section on the police described multiple issues with police organisations, but only footnotes evidence for one of these, The lack of citation to the references at the back of the book means it is impossible to determine the level of evidence for almost every argument, and I find this an incredibly unconvincing writing style.
It is also very inconvenient for any topic I would like to read further on,

Considering this is a thesis that is attempting to convince the reader of their argument, this style had a significant impact on the reading experience, Sharp and wellorganized analysis. It's not only about China worth roughlyof humanity even though, It's not only about dictatorial and/or authoritarian governments in general, It's not even only about our own governments tempted to take the same path or use the same methodologies, This last one would be slightly severe and exaggerated despite worrying weak signals,
It's more about one of our own tendency to expect security and stability, at all costs, To pursue and value comfort, wealth, wellbeing and health, All these things worth wishing these days, But what are we willing to sacrifice to earn and retain all of this
Many Chinese well, roughly half of them, which is not that bad now benefit from this to a certain extent: stability, security, wealth, comfort.
. . At a "small" cost see excerpt below,
Though it is a good introductory book to any lay man or woman who might be interested in understanding China better with loads of facts and research, it is as much a basis for a reflection on our political systems, our own State, our own society.
I was struck by the relationship between individuals and the State: how it builds, what fosters it, how it can/need converge, which one should have preeminence over the other, how a State/government can foster stability for society and its own regime.

Our societies and political regimen are very different from China's, But there is so much to learn from it,
This review is part of sitelink my list of "books for mobility, work and cities" because it is so important to understand the role of the State and its relationship with individuals and society.




One excerpt among the many that struck me, and that should nudge you to read this book,
"It is perfectly possible in China to live your own lifeas long as you understand and accept the limits: that there are things you cannot do or say, that there are other things you have to do, or pretend to do, that there are things you are asked to believe and that you for many purposes must profess to believe, and things you must say and profess to believe in the right way, that there are beliefs you are not allowed to practise, that you cannot organise, that you are obliged to tolerate propaganda and mindless political education, that abuse by public officials is a fact of life you must accommodate to, that ultimately the partystate sets the rules and decides, that you do not have the right to question the party, or any other rights for that matter, including the right to have children, that you have to pay for what you are entitled to, that you are under observation and control, that if you break the rules, or what the authorities say are the rules, or if someone near to you does, you are in risk of being harassed, taken away, disappeared, beaten up, and possibly killed.
" The Perfect Dictatorship: China in thest Century by Stein Ringen is an examination of the evolution of the modern Chinese state and current positions, Ringen is a Norwegian sociologist and political scientist, He is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford,

Ringen provides an interesting perspective on China, As a Norwegian, he is in a neutral position to give an unbiased look at China, Typical examinations of China are from expatriates and those with an anticommunist bias, Ringen is not a Chinese apologist, but a reliable source of information, He does like to compare the evolution of China with that of South Korea and nation that moved from authoritarianism to democracy and small job economy to a technological cutting edge.
Korea creates. China copies.

The discussion I enjoyed the most was the one on legitimacy, Many in the west associate legitimacy with democracy, but that is not always the case, Totalitarian regimes frequently use elections to prove their legitimacy to the world, The USSR, Iraq, and Iran all had/have elections but the results are never in doubt, Legitimacy here is the internal legitimacy that keeps the local population supporting, or at least not rebelling against, the government, This is where the Chinese government holds the edge,

Many societies crave freedom or a voice in the government, The Chinese population craves stability, China has been embarrassed in theth century by foreign interventions from the west and Japan, Upheaval and foreign control were the norms, Now there is internal tranquility, Albeit strict and repressive, the Chinese society is stable,

Much press is given to how many people China has pulled out of poverty, The number is quite impressive, however, the number still living in poverty is enormous, China also has the greatest income inequality in the world, But there is a hope that people will be better off as the economy grows, Corruption is being attacked by the government offering a more fair footing, The government is trapped in a game of maintaining power and keeping the population compliant,

There is plenty of discussion on economy and growth as well as the quality of the growth assembly jobs vs innovation, The People's Army is covered as a source of power in the state and its reform into a professional army from a political tool, The intertwining of the party and the state also create a unique power system different from the Soviet or totalitarian regimes, This is the key to the "Perfect Dictatorship, " A well researched and refreshing look at Modern China,

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