How People’s Democracy Works in China
When King John of England agreed to the Magna Carta in 1215 to make peace with the rebellious barons, the royal charter was meant to protect the nobles’ property rights. The primacy of the privileged has since become a hallmark of Western democracy.
When Austrian-American political economist Joseph Schumpeter espoused an elitist model in 1942, he argued that given the incapacity of ordinary people to make intelligent decisions in politics, it is necessary to leave governance to politicians chosen through competitive elections, and his theory has gained broad acceptance in the West.
However, from a Chinese point of view, this kind of democracy is at best a procedural democracy, which may be a far cry from substantial democracy or real democracy. The