“Authoritarianism” isn’t objectively measured. In my view, all states can be considered authoritarian, as they all are monopolies on violence. Therefore, what matters more is which class controls that authority. In China, the working classes objectively control the state, so I can see why someone would laugh at claims of “Chinese authoritarianism” as the working classes in China have more freedom than those in the west. I’d still consider it to be “authoritarian,” but a good kind, a working class kind.
The working classes do control the state in China. The CPC is overwhelmingly proletarian, and the commanding heights of the economy are overwhelmingly publicly owned. China is also democratic, not only is the state dominated by the working classes who make up the majority of society, but there is also a complex system of council-based democracy, which the overall population percieves as being very democratic:
It’s important to study the actual class character of society and the structures in place when it comes to understanding how it functions, and why China in particular functions so well.
“Authoritarianism” isn’t objectively measured. In my view, all states can be considered authoritarian, as they all are monopolies on violence. Therefore, what matters more is which class controls that authority. In China, the working classes objectively control the state, so I can see why someone would laugh at claims of “Chinese authoritarianism” as the working classes in China have more freedom than those in the west. I’d still consider it to be “authoritarian,” but a good kind, a working class kind.
The working class does not control China, China is not a democracy.
The working classes do control the state in China. The CPC is overwhelmingly proletarian, and the commanding heights of the economy are overwhelmingly publicly owned. China is also democratic, not only is the state dominated by the working classes who make up the majority of society, but there is also a complex system of council-based democracy, which the overall population percieves as being very democratic:
It’s important to study the actual class character of society and the structures in place when it comes to understanding how it functions, and why China in particular functions so well.