Modern China
Special Issue: The Basis for the Legitimacy of the Chinese Political
System: Whence and Whither? Dialogues among Western and Chinese
Scholars, VII
March 2014; Vol. 40, No. 2
http://mcx.sagepub.com/content/40/2?etoc
Category Archives: Comparative Political Theory
Three upcoming Harvard events on Chinese politics
Perhaps these events are a little distant from Chinese philosophy, but I wish I could attend!
- A Constitution without Constitutionalism? Paths of Constitutional Developments in China
- Dictatorship and Information: Autocratic Regime Resilience in Communist Europe and China
- The Rights Defence (weiquan) Movement in China
BU Talk on Conceptions of Democracy
“Conceptions of Democracy on Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland”
Professor David Lorenzo, College of International Affairs, Chengchi National University, Taiwan and author of Concepts of Chinese Democracy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
Tuesday, February 4, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Eilts Room, Department of International Relations | 154 Bay State Road, 2nd Floor
Boston University Center for the Study of Asia (BUCSA)
Rong Jian Critiques “New Authoritarian” Revival
China Policy is an impressive commercial website that has been sending me teasers…and the most recent one contains a bit I thought I’d share: a fascinating essay by a contemporary Chinese political theorist critiquing the idea that China ought to pursue a form of “new authoritarianism” that will lead ultimately to democracy. Instead, says Rong Jian, it may well lead to fascism. I think this link will take you to the page with the essay.
Two New Books
Two recently published books deserve our attention:
P.J. Ivanhoe, Confucian Reflections: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times (Routledge, 2013); this rich and concise book “…argues that the Analects is as relevant and important today as it has proven to be over the course of its more than 2000 year history, not only for the people who live in East Asian societies but for all human beings.”
Joseph Chan, Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy for Modern Times (Princeton, 2013); a long-awaited major statement of Chan’s modern Confucianism, it “…examines and reconstructs both Confucian political thought and liberal democratic institutions, blending them to form a new Confucian political philosophy.”
US-China Security Perceptions Survey
A new survey — which looks at perceptions of one another on the part of various US and Chinese “elite” groups as well as the broader populace — contains some fascinating data. Interesting to look at the views of “scholars” as opposed to other elite groups, though not surprising that we scholars are more likely to see one another as “partners” than as competitors or enemies. The various perspectives on the role(s) of “culture” as also broadly relevant to our concerns here.
Bell Op-ed on Harmony Index
Today’s Financial Times has an op-ed by Daniel Bell on the Harmony Index (an index that ranks countries according to level of social harmony that he developed with Yingchuan Mo at Tsinghua’s Center for International and Comparative Political Theory):
Here’s a link to the index itself:
Tenure track job in Contemporary Global Ethical / Political Thought
Virginia Tech has a job out in Contemporary Global Ethical / Political Thought. Some of you might be interested in it. The job add can be found at https://listings.jobs.vt.edu/postings/43271.
Two New Books Related to Confucianism
Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers:
Ritual Change and Social Transformation in a Southeastern Chinese Community, 1368-1949
Brill 2013
In Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers, Yonghua Liu presents a detailed study of how a southeastern Chinese community experienced and responded to the process whereby Confucian rituals – previously thought unfit for practice by commoners – were adopted in the Chinese countryside and became an integral part of village culture, from the mid fourteenth to mid twentieth centuries.
The book examines the important but understudied ritual specialists, masters of rites (lisheng), and their ritual handbooks while showing their crucial role in the ritual life of Chinese villagers. This discussion of lisheng and their rituals deepens our understanding of the ritual aspect of popular Confucianism and sheds new light on social and cultural transformations in late imperial China.
Yonghua Liu, Ph.D. (McGill, 2004), is Professor of History at Xiamen University, China. He has published over two dozen articles on economic, social, and cultural history of late imperial China.
Confucian Marxism:
A Reflection on Religion and Global Justice
Brill 2013
Buttressed by an autocratic system, China’s colossal economic growth over the past decades seems to have had the paradoxical effect of undermining the foundation of Western domination but at the same time invigorating Eurocentricism. In particular, it highlights the current relevance of the central conviction of Weber’s Orient: the absence of civic roots in non-Western societies will create a kind of “uncivic” capitalist system in which one has no choice but to seek to compensate for instabilities through authoritarian institutions. Does this mean that the West may alone afford to harmonize political stability with the universalistic ideal of justice as the basic structure of society? If not, how then is it possible to develop a notion of the primacy of social justice that transcends the limits of liberal democracy? This book aims at addressing these timely questions by drawing on “Confucian Marxism”—a distinctive perspective on civil society.
Weigang Chen, Ph. D. (Religious Studies, Harvard University 2000), is on the faculty of philosophy and religious studies at University of Macau, with research interests in religion and global politics. He is a member of the editorial board of Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy.
New Book Series in Comparative Ethics, Politics, and Law
The Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP) at City University of Hong Kong and Rowman and Littlefield International are announcing a new monograph series entitled the CEACOP Series in East Asian Comparative Ethics, Politics, and Philosophy of Law. This series, edited by Philip J. Ivanhoe, Sungmoon Kim, and Eirik Lang Harris, will publish path-breaking and field-defining works in East Asian comparative ethics with a special interest in works of normative and applied ethics, political theory, and philosophy of law. More information can be found at http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/ceacop/CEACOP_series.html
