Ballot Box China

Kerry Brown is Senior Fellow on the Asia Programme at Chatham House, London and the co-author of China and the New Maoists (Zed, 2016).

Democracy, Kerry Brown tells us, "best makes sense as part of a host of social forces which are now... recreating the contract between the Party and society." Getting a clear picture of it is a challenge, the key to which is to maintain critical balance. Care must be taken neither to be naive nor, forgetting that politics is the art of the possible, to set the bar so high as to overlook real breakthroughs. Brown finds that despite the initial excitement, "no significant moves have been made to extend the principles" of rural elections elsewhere. It is the constellation of other issues to which they are connected that lends deeper significance to the rural election story. To the basic virtues of balance and objectivity, Brown adds a merciful freedom from jargon and the academic obscurantism. The extension of genuine electoral competition for public office in China has rarely been treated so clearly and readably, making this book a tempting choice for university reading lists.

• Introduction1. A Brief History of Elections, Democracy and Civil Society in Modern China2. Democracy... with Chinese Characteristics3. The Village Election Process4. The Great Debate: Where Is Chinese Village Democracy Going?5. The Big Picture: Elections As Part of the Dynamics of a Society in ChangeLast words