Trends in the Study of Chinese Political Culture

Abstract

A systematic concern with political culture has its heritage in the Enlightenment and 19th-century sociology, if not ancient times, but came to the fore in political science with the post-Second World War behavioural revolution and the emergence of new states whose formal institutions were similar to Western models but whose politics did not follow the Western pattern. The mainstream political science version of political culture was associated with structure-functionalism and modernization theory; a premise was that technological change could help generate modernizing mentalities, while traditional mentalities could inhibit modernizing technical change. Modernization theory went out of fashion in the late 1960s for a variety of ideological, intellectual and empirical reasons, and the political cultural approach fell from favour along with it. More recently, it seems, scholars have returned to an interest in culture, and some even place culture at the heart of emerging political cleavages.

Privacy lost: Appropriating surveillance technology in China’s fight against COVID-19

“…Cultural orientations provide the setting for politics, while the relationship of society to the state is a part of political culture ( Moody, 1994 , p. 735). Our first question concerns the guardianship model of governance beneath media narratives in COVID-19 coverage.…”

Politics Against Science: Reflections on the Study of Chinese Politics in Contemporary China

“…19 Their formulation is a political process, and they are the subjects of scrutiny for both public opinions and political science scholarship. 20 Then there are political opinions on various public issues, usually independent from political practitioners (though this is often not the case in China where the Party-state makes every effort to dominate and even control public opinions), and they form the second category of political writings which is often called "popular political writings" and here I term as "reflective political opinions." 21 Both forms of political writings are significant; actually, in real life they are often much more influential than academic studies, and they could be high-quality intellectual works (just as scholarly writings could be in poor quality).…”

“…See [24], cover blurb. 20 See an analysis of this process as that taking placing in reform China in [25]. 21 That does not mean that academics do not comment on public issues.…”

“…Also,[12]. For some earlier investigations of the field, see, for example,[13][14][15][16], especially Harry Harding, "The Evolution of American Scholarship on Contemporary China," pp.14-40, and Nina P. Halpern, "Studies of Chinese Politics," pp.120-137;[17][18][19][20][21][22]; and[23].…”

How Can We Talk about China and against Sinophobia without Feeling Guilty, Apologetic or Defensive?

“…It is evident when we look at the institutions where research centres and major contributors to China Studies are based. Reviewing early generations of scholarship on Chinese politics and political culture, Harding (1984), Perry (1994), and Moody (1994) cite primarily scholars based in the West. Early scholarship in this field is replete with "Western sentimental misinterpretations" (Moody, 1994: 734), the essentialist gaze at the 'otherness' of the Chinese polity as something distinct from Western democracies (Harding, 1984: 298).…”