China and Legitimacy
A good article that summarizes the reasons why China remains so harsh in its treatment of those expressing views challenging to the established orthodoxy and authority of the ruling Party.
Here is a quote,
"Without legitimacy, no government can rule with any sense of confidence. There are many ways to legitimize political arrangements. Liberal democracy is only a recent invention. Hereditary monarchy, often backed by divine authority, has worked in the past. And some modern autocrats, such as Robert Mugabe, have been bolstered by their credentials as national freedom fighters.
Here is a quote,
"Without legitimacy, no government can rule with any sense of confidence. There are many ways to legitimize political arrangements. Liberal democracy is only a recent invention. Hereditary monarchy, often backed by divine authority, has worked in the past. And some modern autocrats, such as Robert Mugabe, have been bolstered by their credentials as national freedom fighters.
China has changed a great deal in the past century, but it has remained the same in one respect: It is still ruled by a religious concept of politics. Legitimacy is not based on the give and take, the necessary compromises, the wheeling and dealing that form the basis of an economic concept of politics such as that underpinning liberal democracy. Instead, the foundation of religious politics is a shared belief, imposed from above, in ideological orthodoxy."
I think this shows quite well that despite the convergence of so much in the economic realm, culture and history can still play a large role in maintaining widely divergent views on things as fundamental as how to organize the society in which one lives.
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