tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post939282260542295722..comments2024-03-23T04:01:39.348-04:00Comments on Understanding Society: China's role in world history?Dan Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-74499525869879063562011-11-17T02:21:21.804-05:002011-11-17T02:21:21.804-05:00Your point about urban planning is very interestin...Your point about urban planning is very interesting, but perhaps somewhat overstated. From what I know of urban sociology, it's skeptical of the ability of central planners to take every aspect of city life into account. Instead, they build a structure and residents have to find their own uses. So the roads that lead to crazy driving today may have a whole other set of issue once traffic gnarls up China's streets.<br /><br />I think inequality and corruption, which you pointed to, are huge obstacles though. I'm not very sympathetic to the perspective that pressures will result in a revolution of catastrophic consequences, it will cause significant social and economic issues much as those two factors cause problems in the US. If I may make a prediction, it is that barring the sort of intensive conflict that only a sharp downturn would bring, China in 20 years will have social inequalities that will make the bankers of yesteryear blush, in which the government controls the economy, but the real power lies in the hands of economic elites.Eric Titusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-6138123670753572012011-11-11T08:03:20.437-05:002011-11-11T08:03:20.437-05:00"The government seems to take the position th..."The government seems to take the position that it needs to carefully manage the access to information that the public is able to gain." Hmmm. The Chinese Government's media policies are closer to Singapore's than ours, and seem to br growing steadily more liberal. Most significnt is the opinion of the Chinese PEOPLE towards their media: Pew Charitable Trusts' surveys show that the Chinese people's trust of their media is 400% higher than Americans' trust of American media. And since the Chinese are smarter than us (Kissinger) we shoul perhaps scrutinize our own media first.<br /><br />"Second is the fact of persistent inequalities in Chinese society, by sector (rural-urban), by status (resident and well educated / migrant and poorly educated), and by region (coastal-western regions)". Hmmm again. When Deng launched China's peaceful rise, he loudly and repeatedly warned the Chinese, via every medium available, that this development was inevitable though, hopefully, temporary. Few Chinese today would wish to turn back that clock. Besides, the least fortunate have also made huge strides--while their Western cousins have steadily lost ground.<br /><br />"Third, government non-accountability and its cousin, corruption, create serious obstacles to effective forward progress. ". Double-hmmm. The The Politburo and the Standing Committee are demonstrably vastly more honest and more competent than any Western government. Corruption increases as we go down the hierarchy, but it is not nearly as bad as our highly selective media would have us believe. Whereas our (well-paid) lower-level government cadres are, in my experience, remarkably honest, their (low-paid) Chinese underlings are not so much. I am sure that the Chinese Government would love to implement Singapore-style government compensation (and honesty) but that is in the future. In the meantime, the Chinese model is producing better results in every measurable area than ours. Again, Chinese approval of their government is stratospheric compared to ours.Godfree Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06178509602799506224noreply@blogger.com