China and the end of meta-narratives
- By Eric X. Li
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, July 19, 2013
According to Transparency International, China ranks in recent years between 70 and 80 among some 170 countries and has been gradually moving up. India, the largest electoral democracy in the world, 95 and has been dropping. Greece 80, Italy 72, Indonesia and Argentina 100, Philippines 129. More than half of the 100 countries below China are electoral democracies. If election is the panacea for corruption how come these countries can't fix it?
I'm a venture capitalist. I make bets. It wouldn't be proper to end this talk without putting myself on the line and making some predictions.
In the next ten years:
1. China will surpass the US and become the largest economy in the world; Income per capita will be near the top of all developing countries.
2. Corruption will be curbed, not eliminated, and China will move up 10 – 20 notches to above 60 in TI ranking.
3. Economic reform will accelerate, political reform will continue, and the one-party system will hold firm.
We live in the dusk of an era. Meta-narratives that make universal claims failed us in the 20th century and are failing us in the 21st. Meta-narrative is the cancer that is killing democracy from inside. Let me clarify one thing: I am not here to make an indictment of democracy. On the contrary, I think democracy contributed to the rise of the West and the creation of the modern world. It is the universal claim many Western elites are making about their political system – the hubris – that is at the heart of the West's current ills. Perhaps, if they spend a little less time forcing their ways onto others and a little more on political reform at home, they can give their own democracy a better chance.
China's political model will never supplant electoral democracy because, unlike the latter, it does not pretend to be universal. It cannot be exported. But that is the point precisely. The significance of China's example is not that it provides an alternative but the demonstration that alternatives exist.
Let us draw to a close this era of meta-narratives. Communism and democracy may both be laudable ideals. But the era of their dogmatic universalism is over. Let us stop telling people, and our children, there is only one way to govern ourselves and a singular future towards which all societies must evolve. It is wrong, it is irresponsible, and worst of all, it is boring. Let universality make way for plurality. Perhaps, a more interesting age is upon us. Are we brave enough to welcome it?
(Contributed by the Information Office of the CPC International Department)
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)