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A critical reappraisal of resident participation in China and France: ‘authoritarian deliberation’ goes global?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2018

Giulia C. Romano
Giulia C. Romano*
Affiliation:
Institute of East Asian Studies (IN-EAST), University of Duisburg-Essen
*
Corresponding author: E-mail: giulia.romano@uni-due.de
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Abstract

This paper, the first step of a project aiming at analysing the establishment of practices of resident participation and consultation in urban renewal in China, proposes a reflection upon these practices through a comparison with similar experiences in France. Identifying some convergences between the practices adopted in the two countries, the paper proposes to reflect upon such puzzling outcomes, provocatively questioning the classic distinction between authoritarian and democratic regimes. It suggests that our analyses and interpretations shall get rid of classical binary categorisations between regime types to embrace a comparative analysis of the policies and practices introduced in various local contexts, and reflect upon their underlying logics. In so doing, the paper engages with He and Warren's concept of ‘authoritarian deliberation’ as well as with the critiques expressed by a number of French scholars on concepts such as ‘participative democracy’ and ‘good governance’. Such a focus on the underlying logics rather than on regime types will show that the concept of ‘authoritarian deliberation’ does not only apply to authoritarian contexts. Rather, it represents a fruitful starting point to analyse and reflect upon instances of participation and deliberation in both democratic and authoritarian countries.

Keywords

Resident participationurban renewalauthoritarian deliberationChinaFrance
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. 709 - 722
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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