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Global power shifts and the future of democracy: an evolutionary approach, with special attention to China
[working paper]
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Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH
Abstract How may we best understand the effects of the ongoing rise of China on the future of liberal democracy in East Asia? Scholars who stress hegemony tend to predict a less democratic region, while those who stress diffusion tend to predict more democracy. This paper does not attempt to resolve the ques... view more
How may we best understand the effects of the ongoing rise of China on the future of liberal democracy in East Asia? Scholars who stress hegemony tend to predict a less democratic region, while those who stress diffusion tend to predict more democracy. This paper does not attempt to resolve the question, but argues for the use of evolutionary logic to help us with general questions concerning the regional and global waxing and waning of domestic regime types. Evolution's claims about the variety, selection, and retention of traits (in this case, democracy), rightly understood, can accommodate not only the standard international diffusion mechanisms of competition, learning, and emulation, but also that of coercion. The concepts of co-evolution and niche construction are crucial: an agent may modify its environment such that one or more traits of that agent enjoy a greater reproductive advantage. Agency, then, may be not an escape from evolution but a participation in co-evolution. Intentionally or not, rulers of states may construct niches that affect the longevity of the regime through which they rule. Intentional niche constructors may promote their domestic regime, or block the advance of a threatening regime, in their own state or their neighbors via various means. I consider phenomena to which evolutionary logic would direct us concerning China and Asia today, and suggest that China's leaders are engaging in domestic and regional niche construction to preserve the power monopoly of the Chinese Communist Party.... view less
Keywords
democracy; regime; power; China
Classification
Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Political Science
Free Keywords
Koevolution; Nische; Regimetyp
Document language
English
Publication Year
2016
City
Berlin
Page/Pages
27 p.
Series
Discussion Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Internationale Politik und Recht, Abteilung Global Governance, SP IV 2016-108
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/149983
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications