Table of Contents
Preface /1
Ⅰ. Why study the subject "what kind of democracy do Chinese people want" ? / 1
Ⅱ. China's "Political Man" / 5
Ⅲ. How to study "what kind of democracy do Chinese people want" and the arrangement of the book / 7
Chapter 1 Democracy: Good or Not? / 15
Section 1 Do you think democracy is good? / 16
Section 2 China and U.S., which one is better? / 31
Section 3 Are you satisfied with the status quo of China's democracy? / 48
Section 4 Discussion / 55
Chapter Ⅱ What Is Democracy? / 63
Section 1 What is democracy? / 66
Section 2 Consultation or voting? / 76
Section 3 What is the most important condition for being a leader? / 84
Section Ⅳ Whether the secretary got it right? / 91
Section Ⅴ How to evaluate two—party system? / 98
Section Ⅵ Discussion / 106
Chapter Ⅲ Why Do We Need Democracy? / 111
Section 1 What needs greatest improvement in Chinese democratization? / 112
Section 2 What is the most important issue to be addressed through political structure reform? / 121
Section 3 Where do you put freedom and rights? / 129
Section 4 Discussion / 138
Chapter Ⅳ The Best Attitude to Politics / 141
Section 1 What is the best attitude towards politics? / 141
Section 2 To what extent the government influences your life? / 151
Section 3 Who should be responsible for traffic congestion? / 159
Section 4 What will you do in witness of a bribe? / 165
Section 5 Discussion / 173
Chapter Ⅴ How to Participate in Politics? / 175
Section 1 Will you push the government to change the decision when your rights are infringed? / 176
Section 2 How will you choose to influence the government? / 194
Section 3 When will you choose to parade? / 205
Section 4 Discussion / 218
……
Chapter Ⅵ Actual Acts of Political Participation / 221
Chapter Ⅶ Political Knowledge / 273
Chapter Ⅷ China's "Politocal Man" / 309
Conclusion China's Way to Democracy / 341
Appendix Questionnaire on Political Quality of Chinese Citizens / 351
Sample Pages Preview
and political participation to study Chinese citizens' political quality and China's political culture. This book borrows the concept of"Political Man"from American political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset's Politiccal Man. It uses "China's Political Man" to describe Chinese citizens' features in political culture, as economists use "Economic Man" to describe people's features in economic side, and administration scientist use "Administrative Man" to describe people's features in administration side.
The first aspect of Chinese citizens' political quality is political concept.Among the three factors, political concept is the most important. It determines the political quality. Applying Almond's notions, we can say a person's political concept is ignorance. It means he is indifferent to politics.A person's political concept is submission. It means he is always submissive towards the government or authorities. A person's political concept could also be participation. It means that he is willing to participate in decisionmaking process and to influence the result. A person's political knowledge and participation is based upon his political concept. His political knowledge and participation are in line with his political concept. A person with the participation political concept would be different from the person with ignorance political concept in terms of political knowledge and participation attitudes as well as behavior. The ignorant also participate in politics, but they are indifferent towards it. It is the passive participation. A person's political concept may be a combination of the three. If so, his political participation and knowledge should also be in line with his political concept.
At the current stage, as for citizens' political concept, our priority is "what kind of democracy do they want". It does not mean that we do not care about the other aspects of his political concept. We also study the other aspects of his political concept because our study and research are constant and comprehensive. Just as the 1988's project research, although the focus back then is different from the latest one, the study and research in 1988 still constitutes a part of our constant research. It is a part of our academic accumulation. Therefore, we can compare Chinese citizens' political qualityor China's political culture development at different stages.
