East-West Governance: Democracy, Meritocracy, or Both?

Westerners tend to divide the political world into "good" democracies and "bad" authoritarian regimes. But the Chinese political model does not fit neatly in either category. Over the past three decades, China has developed a genuinely new approach to governance, rooted in its long history and at odds with the "Western" idea that electoral democracy is the only legitimate form of government. This political model can best be described as "political meritocracy" although there remains a large gap between the theory and the practice and a large democratic deficit.

The Stanford & Berggruen symposium discusses the following questions:

- How do the ideals of political meritocracy set the standard for evaluating political progress (and regress) in China?
- How can China avoid the disadvantages of political meritocracy?
- How can political meritocracy best be combined with democracy?
- What can the West learn from the Chinese approach to governance?

Nicolas Berggruen (Chairman of the Berggruen Institute ) and Daniel A. Bell (Director of the Berggruen Institute Philosophy and Culture Center) were invited to give a talk at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University on September 15, 2015.

[yanyannyaany]

they didnt bring up democratic consultation, when mao wrote the constution it went therough drafts that incorporated feedback from first a close group, then a group of thousands, then printed in the newspaper for everyone to give feedback to the wording of the constitution. They do that process with many legislation. 5 year plans are written by teams of at least 10, 000 people representing diferent segments and regions. Daniel really needs to do more research on peoples consultative conference, its not just for show

[petercheung]

I watch this video in 2019. It may confirm Mr. Bell is correct. I live in the West, I did experience I vote and I regret.