Chinese Contemplations on Utopian and Dystopian Democracy

Abstract

This article addresses the Chinese debates on utopian and dystopian modes of democracy and democratic governance. It opens the black box of the one-party state and delves below the surface of the People’s Republic of China’s official statements on “democracy” (e.g. “people’s democracy,” “democratic centralism”) by focusing on the often-overlooked “democracy” contemplations within the highly fragmented Chinese academic communities. These reflections indirectly respond to the theory debates (and democratic practices) in other world regions – with the US being referred to as the main “mirror” image. Moreover, the (Chinese) debate has started to also reflect on the impact of AI and self-learning algorithms on “democracy” both in and beyond China – a field, as this article argues, where “Chinese” and “Western” concerns and worries regarding the socio-political repercussions of AI-assisted governance largely overlap.