Deliberative democracy in an unlikely place: Deliberative Polling in China

British Journal of Political Science

Volumn 40, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 435-448

  Fishkin, James S ^a   He, Baogang ^b   Luskin, Robert C ^c   Siu, Alice ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b DEAKIN UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^c UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77953618806     PISSN: 00071234     EISSN: 14692112     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007123409990330     Document Type: Note

References (44)

1. Richard A. Posner, Law, Pragmatism and Democracy (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 163.
2. See Lynn M. Sanders, 'Against Deliberation', Political Theory, 25 (1997), 347-76;
3. Iris Marion Young, Intersecting Voices: Dilemmas of Gender, Political Philosophy and Policy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997), chap. III;
4. and Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), chap. 2.
5. See Cass R. Sunstein, 'Deliberative Trouble? Why Groups Go to Extremes', Yale Law Journal, 110, (2000), 71-119;
6. and 'The Law of Group Polarization', in James S. Fishkin and Peter Laslett, eds, Debating Deliberative Democracy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003);
7. and also Republic.Com (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002), chap. 3.
8. Peng Zhongzhao, Xue Lan and Kan Ke, Public Hearing System in China (Beijing: Qinghua University Press, 2004).
9. Baogang He, Rural Democracy in China (NY: Palgrave, 2007), chap. 6.
10. Baogang He, 'The Theory and Practice of Chinese Grassroots Governance: Five Models', Japanese Journal of Political Science, 4, no.2 (2003), 293-314.
11. Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan, 'The Internal Politics of an Urban Chinese Work Community: A Case Study of Employee Influence on Decision-making at a State-Owned Factory', The China Journal, No.52, July, 2004, pp. 1-24.
12. See the official document, Democratic Sincerely Talk: The Innovation from Wenling (compiled by the Department of Propaganda, Wenling, 2003), p. 98.
13. Zhu Mang, Multiple Dimensions of Administrative Law (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2004). Chap. 1 is devoted to the topic of public hearings on administrative punishment.
14. Wang Quansheng, A Study of Legislative Hearing (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2003).
15. Their speeches at the international conference on public hearings in China, 2005. See Chen Shengyong and Baogang He, eds, Development of Deliberative Democracy (Beijing: China's Social Sciences Press, 2006), pp. 445 and 449.
16. Chen and He, eds, Development of Deliberative Democracy, Appendix. The appendix includes a summary of the international conference on public hearings held in July 2005.
17. For more on the rationale for Deliberative Polling, see James S. Fishkin and Robert C. Luskin, 'Experimenting with a Democratic Ideal: Deliberative Polling and Public Opinion', Acta Politica, 40 (2005), 284-298
18. They were paid 50 Chinese yuan (RMB) each, equivalent at the time to around US $6.
19. A few participants were excluded from the analysis because they appeared to be cases in which the designated participant sent a family member or friend in his or her stead.
20. Almost two-thirds of the participants but just over 80 per cent of the non-participants were male. The participants averaged 47.5 years old, the non-participants 37.6 years old. Only about 20 per cent of the participants but more than 50 per cent of the non-participants had at least a high school education. More than 60 per cent of the participants but only about 20 per cent of the non-participants were farmers. Only 16.5 per cent of the participants but 52.2 per cent of the non-participants were entrepreneurs.
21. See J. S. Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (New York: Prometheus Books, 1991), especially chaps 1 and 8, pp. 78-9 and 171-3.
22. See also Jane Mansbridge, 'On the Idea that Participation Makes Better Citizens', in Stephen L. Elkin and Karol Edward Soltan, eds, Citizen Competence and Democratic Institutions (University Park, Pa.: Penn State University Press, 1999), pp. 291-325.
23. Sanders, 'Against Deliberation';
24. and Young, 'Intersecting Voices'.
25. For concerns about the inequalities in the current public hearing system, see Chen and He, eds, Development of Deliberative Democracy, pp. 445 and 449.
26. See Sunstein, 'Deliberative Trouble?' and 'The Law of Group Polarization', in Fishkin and Laslett, eds, Debating Deliberative Democracy.
27. See, for example, Robert C. Luskin, James S. Fishkin and Roger Jowell, 'Considered Opinions: Deliberative Polling in Britain', British Journal of Political Science, 32 (2002), 455-487
28. See Cass R. Sunstein, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), especially chap. 2;
29. and David Schkade, Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastie, 'What Happened on Deliberation Day?', California Law Review, 95 (2007), 915-940
30. Luskin et al., 'Considered Opinions', p. 477.
31. Robert C. Luskin, 'True Versus Measured Information Gain' (Department of Government, University of Texas, Austin), also available at http://cdd.stanford. edu/research/papers/2001/true-infogain. pdf
32. summarized in Luskin et al., 'Considered Opinions', pp. 480-483
33. All the variables are implicitly subscripted for the ith participant and jth project index.
34. See Luskin et al., 'Considered Opinions', pp. 480-481
35. and Luskin, 'True versus Measured Information Gain'.
36. Just as in Luskin et al., 'Considered Opinions'. Results available on request.
37. These criteria date from the 16th National Congress in 2002 and were reaffirmed in the 17th. See ZhangMingai, 'Congress Mapped Out China's Democratic Politics', China Elections, http://en.chinaelections. org/newsinfo.asp? newsid511877 (accessed 26 July 2008).
38. Jiang Zaohua and He Baogang, 'Deliberative Democracy: The Participatory Decision-making Mechanism', in Chen and He, eds, Development of Deliberative Democracy, pp. 227-228
39. Personal communication to the authors.
40. Howard W. French, 'China's new frontiers: Tests of democracy and dissent', New York Times, 19 June 2005.
41. See Baogang He and Xie Yuhua, 'Participation at Workplace: A Case Study of Deliberative Forum in Longbiao Company', Twentieth-First Century (Hong Kong), No.4 (2008), 102-112
42. Ogden notes the importance of 'deliberation in the Chinese political system as a means of reaching consensus' and argues that this deliberation 'could prove to be an important building block for democratization' (Suzanne Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 257).
43. Professor Lin Shangli, the dean of social sciences at Fudan University, argues for deliberation-led democratization (see Lin Shangli, 'Deliberative Politics: A Reflection on the Democratic Development of China', Academic Monthly (Shanghai), No.4 (2003), 19-25).
44. On this issue, see Ethan Leib and Baogang He, eds, The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China (New York: Palgrave, 2006).