Social Risk Research, The Process Of Democratization In China

Political democratization represents a basic requirement of the modern society, which is also one of the key tasks and objectives of China's modernization. Social risks are however the reality to be inevitably faced in the course of modernization. Current academic research in these two fields is parallel and independent from each other, but the present thesis analyzes the current democratization process in China from a new perspective, i.e. social risks, with focus placed on analysis of the intercrossed aspects between democratization of politics and social risks. The thesis is based on several basic assumptions as follows: First, the characteristics of Chinese democratization make the democratization fill with lots of risk and uncertainty. Second, social risk will influence the formation of Chinese characteristics democratization. Third,to achieve healthy development of democracy depends on reducing social risks,especially minimizing negative impact of risk to the democratization.Generally, the initiation and improvement of democratization is subject to satisfaction of certain fundamental conditions, such as independent individuals, environment allowing free expression of wills, expansion of channels of participation, development of the modern economy, rational structure of society, etc. The Chinese society today has basically met some basic preconditions of democratization and the trend of democratization has also become increasingly apparent gradually. However, Chinese society is now in the period of accelerated transformation. It is right because of the uniqueness of the democratization process that has led to the enormous risks or uncertainties in the current democratization process in China. They include not only external risks, but also inherent risks. Compared with other democratic countries, the social risks in today's democratization process in China are of their uniqueness. The original meaning of risk refers to a kind of uncertainty of loss. As a matter of fact, social risks are actually the combination of two opposite sides, of which the positive side is that they can drive the democratization progress, while the negative side is that they may also hamper the smooth progress of democratization. It is of no doubt that these social risks will have very important impact on the formation of the democratization of unique Chinese characteristics. Therefore, in the current democratization process in China, various effective measures should be taken on one hand in order to minimize various social risks existing during the process whilst minimizing the negative impacts of social risks on the democratization; and on the other hand, paths of democratization tallying with the actual conditions in China should be explored so as to achieve healthy growth of democracy in China.The thesis consists of seven sections.The introduction section explains the background of selection of the thesis topic, and states the theoretical and realistic implications of the analysis in the thesis. In addition, it also introduces the results, characteristics and weaknesses of research on this subject as done by domestic and foreign scholars, and elaborates the thoughts and methodology of research of the thesis, as well as the innovative points and weaknesses of the thesis.Chapter I discusses the basic conditions on democratization, and generally, pursuit of democratization is subject to satisfaction of conditions including availability of independent individuals, environment allowing free expression of wills, expanded channels of participation, development of the modern economy, and rational structure of society. Specific to these fundamental conditions and in consideration of the actual situation in China, analysis is done mainly from perspectives including economic development, social structure change, social stability, external environment and internet development, to demonstrate the inevitability that the trend of democratization has started to become apparent in China. It also describes how the trend has started to become apparent.Chapter II focuses on characteristics of the democratization process in China. The thesis points out that the current democratization process in China is of the following characteristics, namely the special interlinking effect between political, economic and social development, the priority sequence of system, participation and political culture, the inherent generation of democracy as result of external factors, progressiveness of the democratic process, and unique advantages of democratization in China.Chapter III discusses causes of social risks appearing in the democratization process in China, with emphasis placed on social risks at two layers. One is external risks against democratization, that is, social risks independent from the democratization process, which are mainly risks relating to social structure, such as system risks, social class risks, organizational risks and cultural risks; and the other is inherent risks in democratization, namely social risks triggered by democratization itself, such as expansion of public power, tyranny by majority, Internet democratic risks, etc.Chapter IV discusses the mechanism of formation of social risks from perspectives including the process, mechanism and rules of formation of social risks, and analyzes the characteristics of social risks in the democratization process, which include special social origin, concurrency and interrelation, fundamental nature and extensiveness, diversity of response, etc.Chapter V analyzes the positive and negative impacts of social risks, and illustrates in detail the influence of social risks on democratization of unique Chinese characteristics, for instance, attaching importance to the role of governments, increased uncertainties of democratization as caused by the Internet, paying attention to optimization of the structure of society, and limitation of democratization by urbanization, etc. Affected by those risks, the democratization process in China might have several possibilities, namely democratization may be promoted smoothly; or the cost of democratization may be increased; or the democratization process may be distorted or interrupted.The final section of the thesis takes into account the current situation that the democratization in China is faced with numerous social risks, and calls for the taking of diversified and powerful measures to eliminate these social risks and minimize the negative impacts of the risks so as to achieve healthy growth of democracy in China. On one hand, the Chinese society has met certain preconditions of democratization and the democratization process has to be promoted instead of being deferred or delayed on the excuse that it is not the mature time; and on the other hand, the actual situation in China has to be taken into account and democratization has to be promoted in an independent, steady and progressive manner, democratization from the top to the bottom level should be combined with that from the bottom to the top, and a shift should be pursued from economic democracy to constitution-based democracy, from procedural democracy to substantive democracy, and from election democracy to consultation democracy.