5th Global Justice Workshop: "The Practice of Political Representation in Contemporry China"

 Global Justice Workshop (V)

Topic: The Practice of Political Representation in Contemporry China

Speaker: De-min DUAN (Associate Professor, School of Government, Peking University)

Moderator: Jun-Hyeok Kwak (Professor, Sun Yat-sen University)

Time: Mar. 17, 10:00 am

Venue: R106, No.13 Administrative Building of Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYSU

Abstract: Recent debates on the relationship between representation and democracy have revealed that the “authoritative” character of political representation may be crucial for public deliberation. However, the bulk of the discussion argues the case from inside what are usually considered representative democracies. Taking contemporary China as a case, this article seeks to expand the scope of these discussions and instead think about the role of political representation in an “authoritarian” regime. Given that the terms “representation” and “representative” are ubiquitously used in the Chinese political context, and that only the ruling party - the Chinese Communist Party - considers itself as “representative” of the people, this article tries to understand what “representation” actually means in this case. It further argues that there is a representative turn” in the Party’s understanding of its relationship with the people, which is also conducive to public deliberation.