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Authoritarian deliberation revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2018

Baogang He  and
Hendrik Wagenaar
Baogang He*
Affiliation:
Deakin University, Australia
Hendrik Wagenaar
Affiliation:
King’s College London
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: baogang.he@deakin.edu.au
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Abstract

This introductory paper reviews the origin and development of the concept of authoritarian deliberation, and highlights the importance of culture and cultural tradition associated with public consultation. This paper summarizes and illustrates six key features of authoritarian deliberation in China. First, deliberation in China is a precarious balance between legal rule and state intervention. Second, the Party appeals to public reason to address and manage social conflict, and develop the soft coercion that accompanies much authoritarian deliberation. Third, this highly controlled deliberative process does, however, allow the freedom of local participants to find spaces for democratic expression, and local experiments to develop elements of deliberative democracy. Fourth, authoritarian deliberation is characterized by mutual instrumentalism. Fifth, there is an importance of an administrative and policy perspective in authoritarian deliberation. Six, the concept of authoritarian deliberation is not limited to China. There is the convergence in real-world deliberative process and outcome between authoritarian and liberal democratic systems.

Keywords

Authoritarian deliberationChinaGovernancedemocracylocal deliberative democracydeconstructed democracy
Type
Special Section, Authoritarian Deliberation Revisited (Edited by Baogang He and Hendrik Wagenaar)
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 622 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

We acknowledge the financial support of the Australian Research Council.

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