Wang Shaoguang

Professor

Wang Shaoguang
王绍光
Wang Shaoguang
Wang Shaoguang in a 2013 UN University interview
Born1954 (age 69–70)
Wuhan, Hubei, China
NationalityChinese
Academic background
Alma materPeking University (LL.B., 1982)
Cornell University (Ph.D., 1990)
ThesisFailure of Charisma: The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan
InfluencesCarl Schmitt[1]
Academic work
DisciplinePolitical science
School or traditionChinese New Left
InstitutionsYale University (1990–2000)
Chinese University of Hong Kong (1999–present)
Movements in contemporary
Chinese political thought
Liberalism
New Conservatism
New Confucianism
New Left

Wang Shaoguang (born 1954;[2] Chinese: 王绍光; pinyin: Wáng Shàoguāng) is a Chinese political scientist. He is currently an emeritus professor at the Department of Government and Public Administration of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A critic of Western representative democracy, his particular research interests include the history of the Cultural Revolution, sortition, the welfare state, and the comparative politics of East Asia.[3]

Life

Born in Wuhan, Hubei, Wang worked as a high school teacher in Wuhan from 1972 to 1977. He then studied at Peking University, graduating in 1982, and moved to Cornell University in the U.S., where he received a doctorate in 1990. He taught at Yale University from 1990 to 2000 before moving to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he became a professor at the Department of Government and Public Administration.[3] In 1993, Wang co-authored the "Wang Shaoguang Proposal" with economist Hu Angang, a public policy report that argued that the taxation reforms of Deng Xiaoping had weakened the Chinese state, and advocated fiscal centralisation in response.[4]

Views

Wang is a leading member of the Chinese New Left.[5][6]

He is a critic of Western representative democracy, which he believes has failed and degenerated into "electocracy",[7] and more generally of the focus on competitive elections as part of political reform. Wang argues that the view of democracy as primarily electoral democracy only became accepted in the postwar period, owing mainly to the work of Joseph Schumpeter and his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Instead, he states, the "people should be involved in the whole process of decision-making, not only in choosing the decision-maker per se".[8]

He also distinguishes accountability from responsibility and political responsiveness, holding that genuine democracy must combine all three:[7] "democratic" governments are often accountable in that they may be removed in competitive elections, Wang posits, but they are still not responsive to popular needs and demands.[8]

Works

  • Failure of Charisma: The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1995. ISBN 0195859502.
  • The Political Economy of Uneven Development: The Case of China. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 1999. ISBN 9780765602039, with Hu Angang.
  • The Chinese Economy in Crisis: State Capacity and Tax Reform. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 2001. ISBN 9780765607652, with Hu Angang.

References

  1. ^ Sapio, Flora (7 October 2015). "Carl Schmitt in China". The China Story. Archived from the original on 29 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. ^ Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding WorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF).
  3. ^ a b "Shaoguang Wang". Chinese University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  4. ^ Van Dongen, Els (2019). Realistic Revolution: Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics after 1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 41–2. ISBN 978-1108421300.
  5. ^ Shi Anshu; Lachapelle, François; Galway, Matthew (2008). "The recasting of Chinese socialism: The Chinese New Left since 2000". China Information. 32 (1): 140–159: 144. doi:10.1177/0920203X18760416.
  6. ^ Li He (2009). "China's New Left" (PDF). East Asian Policy. 1 (1): 30–37: 32. S2CID 21871195. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b Zhou Lian (2012). "The Debates in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought". In Dallmayr, Fred; Zhao, Tingyang (eds.). Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 26–45: 32. ISBN 978-0813136424.
  8. ^ a b Frenkiel, Émilie (15 July 2009). "Political change and democracy in China: An interview with Wang Shaoguang". Books & Ideas. Retrieved 30 July 2019.

Further reading

  • "Traditional Moral Politics and Contemporary Concepts of Governance". Reading the China Dream. Translated by David Ownby. Interview with Wang Shaoguang by journalist Ma Ya, originally published in 2012.

External links

  • Faculty page at Chinese University of Hong Kong
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