CHINA
ANTHONY BUTLER: Social media a way to bypass democracy
Political theorists know that disputes about the meaning of "democracy" usually cannot be settled by appeals to reason or evidence alone. Elections, at least, have been central to almost everyone’s idea of democracy since its unlikely emergence in ancient Athens. Writing on the eve of SA’s own transition, the greatest of all living political scientists, Adam Przeworski, defined democracy as a regime in which "government offices are filled as a consequence of contested elections". But most scholars insist that democracy must also be a "liberal" system in which fundamental rights and freedoms are constitutionally protected. Can democratic decisions be delegated to others? In large and complex commercial societies, electoral participation has mostly been limited to periodic votes for representatives who then deliberate on citizens’ behalf. While western political scientists struggle to define democracy and to understand its implications, the Chinese Communist Party is bypassing the con...
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