Political Meritocracy & The Rise of China

Political Meritocracy & The Rise of China
In The China Model Professor Daniel Bell delineates how China’s political governance functions on three levels: local democracy at the bottom, controlled experimentation in the middle, and political meritocracy at the top. Local democracy refers to elections for governing councils in villages, towns, counties and urban districts.Unlike Western models, China's selection of officials is focused on ability and merit. "Political meritocracy" is the idea that the political system should aim to select and promote leaders with superior qualities, Bell expounded in a National Interest article.

According to the World Bank, China’s economic rise has been, “the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history.” What lies behind this remarkable transformation? One of the most fundamental causes of China’s economic development was Deng Xiaoping’s influential behind-the-scenes decision-making after Mao’s death. Deftly maneuvering China’s levers of power, Deng emancipated the country from ideologically determined policies and pragmatically directed the opening and reform of China’s economy. But Deng is only one man, and China is a country of 1.3 billion people. His leadership is only part of the story.

An additional part of the story is explored by Prof. Daniel A. Bell in his important and fascinating book, The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy (2015). The Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University and professor at Tsinghua University, in The China Model Bell investigates the role played by political meritocracy in China’s rise. Political meritocracy, writes Bell, is a form of governance in which political leaders with ‘‘superior ability” who are capable of ‘‘making… informed political judgments” are promoted through the ranks. Bell argues that this process is responsible in large part for China’s economic development, “Since the early 1990s, China’s political system has evolved a sophisticated and comprehensive system for selecting and promoting political talent that seems to have underpinned China’s stunning economic success.”

Interestingly, Bell claims that the decision to re-institute political meritocracy also received a push from the stunning economic success of Singapore, the small city-state in Southeast Asia whose population is approximately 75% ethnic Chinese. From the outset, Singapore’s founder and first Prime Minister, Lee Kwan Yew, consciously cultivated meritocracy for Singapore’s political system and championed it throughout his career. In Lee’s own words, “Singapore is a society based on effort and merit … The main burden of present planning and implementation rests on the shoulders of 300 key persons … Singapore is a meritocracy… these men have risen through their own merit, hard work, and high performance.”

Video show courtesy of The Point