Hey,
So, I have gone through some articles and briefly organised arguments for both sides of the debate in this week’s Tutorial.
Will hopefully be useful for everyone’s discussions.
Red – Point
Blue – counterpoint
(Context of China)
Would China or Singapore be better off if they had developed under more democratic institutions than they actually did?
1.Empirical evidence proves authoritarian states can experience high rates of growth
2.Bureaucratic reforms are not political reforms, they are not as stable and don’t last and China eventually may not have a choice
3.There is no current ‘high-income’ country that is authoritarian – (Turkey but it’s debatable)
Or was authoritarianism necessary for development?
1.China has defied expectation with economic growth while becoming more authoritarian
2.The CCP has made changes to its bureaucracy such as accountability, competition, partial limits on power have helped boost capitalism without giving up single-party control
3.China’s current economic success does not prove the necessity for authoritarianism, the decades under Mao were a failure for example
Here are the links to the articles I thought were the most useful:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2018-04-16/autocracy-chinese-characteristics
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blogs/george-magnus/are-authoritarian-states-better-at-delivering-economic-growth
I think that maybe you could argue that China is a 'high income' authoritarian country. I'm aware that there are many political researchers that argue whether China is even an Authoritarian state but in this case I would agrue that with the limited access to media by a VPN and the unlikeliness of the public to speak up against the leading party due to possible punishment, China could fall under the authoritirian catergory. Moreover, China has the largest economy in the world with the U.S in second place. Does this mean that China is a 'high income' authoritarian country? I think it could be argued both ways personally!
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't China be an authoritarian country, Rhiannon?
DeleteChina has an extreme control off their economy which allows them to artificially manipulate all thing money within their state. consequently the fact that China isnt a high income state, with it large global economic power, probably point to the fact that they do no have a high income on purpose. therefore i would argue that it is a wrong course of action to examine china under the same context (specifically when it come to the economy) as other nations.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean Patrick? What is the context here that you are referring to?
DeleteThough economic growth in China is probably a bit overstated (for reasons having to do with informaiton problems), it's definitely the case that since the "Reform and Opening" era China has really grown enormously.