Democracy, Asian Values, and Hong Kong

Democracy, Asian Values, and Hong Kong PDF

Author: Bob Beatty

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2003-08-30

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0313051607

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On July 1, 1997, China took control over Hong Kong, where Britain had begun a process of introducing democracy. Beatty examines the process of democratization in Hong Kong, with the argument that democratic development will continue, despite being under Chinese rule. Through a series of 128 interviews with 89 Hong Kong elites from 1997-2002, including legislators and party leaders as well as participant and direct observation of 15 campaigns for the Legislative Council in 1998, Beatty analyzed political leaders beliefs and commitment towards democratic development and institutions and put them into the context of the post-handover environment. Evidence from the interviews is used to test the proposition that adherence to Asian values undermines democracy and Beatty probed Hong Kong elites about their beliefs regarding the rule of law, freedom of the press, civil liberties, and the possible trade-offs between economic development and democratization. A major finding from the in-depth interviews is that while Hong Kong political elites reject the Sinapore model and the Asian Values argument, many do believe in trade-offs between economic development and democratization. Beatty also offers sharp insight into the thinking of Hong Kong political elites and transcends the particular politics of Hong Kong and delves in the broader subject of elite beliefs and attitudes. An important analysis for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with China, Hong Kong, Asian politics and political values, and political development in general.

How East Asians View Democracy

How East Asians View Democracy PDF

Author: Yun-han Chu

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2008-09-01

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0231517831

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East Asian democracies are in trouble, their legitimacy threatened by poor policy performance and undermined by nostalgia for the progrowth, soft-authoritarian regimes of the past. Yet citizens throughout the region value freedom, reject authoritarian alternatives, and believe in democracy. This book is the first to report the results of a large-scale survey-research project, the East Asian Barometer, in which eight research teams conducted national-sample surveys in five new democracies (Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Mongolia), one established democracy (Japan), and two nondemocracies (China and Hong Kong) in order to assess the prospects for democratic consolidation. The findings present a definitive account of the way in which East Asians understand their governments and their roles as citizens. Contributors use their expert local knowledge to analyze responses from a set of core questions, revealing both common patterns and national characteristics in citizens' views of democracy. They explore sources of divergence and convergence in attitudes within and across nations. The findings are sobering. Japanese citizens are disillusioned. The region's new democracies have yet to prove themselves, and citizens in authoritarian China assess their regime's democratic performance relatively favorably. The contributors to this volume contradict the claim that democratic governance is incompatible with East Asian cultures but counsel against complacency toward the fate of democracy in the region. While many forces affect democratic consolidation, popular attitudes are a crucial factor. This book shows how and why skepticism and frustration are the ruling sentiments among today's East Asians.

How Asians View Democratic Legitimacy

How Asians View Democratic Legitimacy PDF

Author: Yun-han Chu

Publisher: 國立臺灣大學出版中心

Published: 2023-04-01

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9863507180

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This edited volume is intended to showcase the breadth and depth of the collaborative intellectual enterprise that the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) network has built up over the past two decades. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the ABS, we invited ABS partners to contribute their intellectual findings to this edited volume. Except for the introduction, this volume consists of twenty-seven chapters divided into two sections. The first part of the book contains eleven chapters that are based on previously published studies and are updated based on the latest ABS data. The second part of the book focuses on issues specific to each country or autonomous territory and consists of sixteen chapters. Among the topics discussed are potential threats to third-wave democracies, evolving ideology in one-party states, cases of denied democracy, and peculiar challenges faced by long-term democracies. The contributors are the indispensable partners that have made the ABS possible over the past two decades. In addition to celebrating the long-term collective efforts of those who participated in the ABS project, this edited volume also sets out to address the ongoing debate over the future of democracy in Asia.

Keeping Democracy at Bay

Keeping Democracy at Bay PDF

Author: Suzanne Pepper

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2007-07-12

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1461638488

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This thoroughly researched study provides an invaluable account of Hong Kong's political evolution from its founding as a British colony to the present. Exploring the interplay between colonial, capitalist, communist, and democratic forces in shaping Hong Kong's political institutions and culture, Suzanne Pepper offers a fresh perspective on the territory's development and a gripping account of the transition from British to Chinese rule. The author carries her narrative forward through the lives of significant figures, capturing the personalities and issues central to understanding Hong Kong's political history. Bringing a balanced view to her often contentious subject, she places Hong Kong's current partisan debates between democrats and their opponents within the context of China's ongoing search for a viable political form. The book considers Beijing's increasing intervention in local affairs and focuses on the challenge for Hong Kong's democratic reformers in an environment where ultimate political power resides with the communist-led mainland government and its appointees.

Demystifying Asian Values in Journalism

Demystifying Asian Values in Journalism PDF

Author: Xiaoge Xu

Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

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Few studies have fully examined Asian values in journalism and the related debate in terms of their contexts, evolution, features, limitations, contributions, and implications. Little research has comprehensively looked into the components and origins of Asian values in journalism although their existence has been sporadically investigated. Consequently, the topic has been much mystified. Placed in the theoretical framework of ideological domination and control, the book is designed to demystify the topic by addressing nine questions regarding the above-mentioned areas through documentary research and historical-comparative analysis. It was discovered that Asian values in journalism reflected efforts to construct Asian press models and were also used to chart directions and dimensions for the press development in Asia, although the values were conceptually elusive and theoretically confusing. Another finding was that the Asian values in journalism are not purely Asian but do share journalistic traditions. One major finding is that the Asian values in journalism debate is an extension of the ongoing battle between Asia and the West for ideological dominance and control in journalism. Instead of sporadic and unsystematic studies, the author proposes an integrated approach in the search for Asian values of journalism and the construction of Asian press models.

East Meets West

East Meets West PDF

Author: Daniel A. Bell

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2000-05-08

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 1400823552

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Is liberal democracy a universal ideal? Proponents of "Asian values" argue that it is a distinctive product of the Western experience and that Western powers shouldn't try to push human rights and democracy onto Asian states. Liberal democrats in the West typically counter by questioning the motives of Asian critics, arguing that Asian leaders are merely trying to rationalize human-rights violations and authoritarian rule. In this book--written as a dialogue between an American democrat named Demo and three East Asian critics--Daniel A. Bell attempts to chart a middle ground between the extremes of the international debate on human rights and democracy. Bell criticizes the use of "Asian values" to justify oppression, but also draws on East Asian cultural traditions and contributions by contemporary intellectuals in East Asia to identify some powerful challenges to Western-style liberal democracy. In the first part of the book, Bell makes use of colorful stories and examples to show that there is a need to take into account East Asian perspectives on human rights and democracy. The second part--a fictitious dialogue between Demo and Asian senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew--examines the pros and cons of implementing Western-style democracy in Singapore. The third part of the book is an argument for an as-yet-unrealized Confucian political institution that justifiably differs from Western-style liberal democracy. This is a thought-provoking defense of distinctively East Asian challenges to Western-style liberal democracy that will stimulate interest and debate among students of political theory, Asian studies, and international human rights.

East and West

East and West PDF

Author: Chris Patten

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9780771069741

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From the last governor of Hong Kong, a controversial, astute, and thought-provoking analysis of the Asian phenomenon and the future of economic and political liberty in China and East Asia in the next century. For Chris Patten, Hong Kong was an extraordinary vantage point from which to view the growing economic and political power of China and East Asia over the last five years. As a free colony of the British Empire and the apex of an economic success story, it benefited from the development of the Chinese economy as surely as it contributed to that economic miracle. In a political move which marked the twilight years of the Empire, Hong Kong was finally handed back to Communist China in June 1997. "East and West is Chris Patten's account of the current Asian phenomenon and an astute analysis of China as a rapidly growing world power. The handover of Hong Kong challenged Britain's liberal conscience. With China looming in the background, it was impossible to build a platform of independence and political democracy as had been constructed in other colonial territories. "East and West focuses on Chris Patten's key disputes with China over questions of democratic election, civil liberties, and Hong Kong's independence; but, more importantly, it examines the larger picture of the Asian value system. Can you have economic change without political change? Can democratic rule guarantee fair play between economic competitors? There can be no doubt that Asia is a potentially formidable competitor to Europe and the United States, but Communist China lies at the heart of Asian development. In his intelligent and thought-provoking book, Chris Patten examines the implications of China'seconomic reforms and sets out the key political agendas for the future - not only for the East, but also for the West.

Human Rights in Asia

Human Rights in Asia PDF

Author: Randall Peerenboom

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-09-27

Total Pages: 542

ISBN-13: 1134238819

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Human Rights in Asia considers how human rights are viewed and implemented in Asia. It covers not just civil and political rights, but also social, economic and cultural rights. This study discusses the problems arising from the fact that ideas of human rights have evolved in Western liberal democracies and examines how far such values are compatible with Asian values and applicable in Asian contexts. Core chapters on France and the USA provide a benchmark on how human rights have emerged and how they are applied and implemented in a civil law and a common law jurisdiction. These are then followed by twelve chapters on the major countries of East Asia plus India, each of which follows a common template to consider the context of the legal system in each country, black letter law, legal discussions and debates and key current issues concerning human rights in each jurisdiction.

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