Democracy is a good thing (Interview with Yu Keping)

Author: Yan Jian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Governance and good governance are not only practical political realities but also macro-theories reflecting political realities, as well as a means of analyzing political realities. As a new political analytical framework, compared to other traditional political analysis methods, governance and good governance methods have their own distinct advantages. First, they provide new analytical perspectives and categories; second, when analyzing political development, they are more comprehensive than other methods; third, they reflect the direction of development. When using governance and good governance methods to analyze the political development of a place or a country, the main focus is on its governance environment, such as the political environment, legal environment, economic environment, cultural and psychological environment, governance structure, such as government agencies and their roles, political parties and their roles in governance, other political organizations and their roles in governance, civil organizations and their roles in governance, the role of other governance structures, and the relationships between various governance institutions; governance process or procedures, such as decision-making processes, election processes, administrative processes, supervision processes, litigation processes, participation processes; governance methods, such as administrative orders, political mobilization, legal coercion, persuasion and education, political education, economic incentives, freedom, cooperation, violence, governance content; governance and the governed; the significance of governance, including the main variables affecting governance, the dynamics of democratic governance, the evaluation of governance, governance and local democracy, governance and economic development, governance and social stability. Democracy is a good thing, not just for a few people, nor for some officials; it is for the entire nation and the broad masses of the people. For officials who prioritize their own interests, democracy is not only not a good thing but also a nuisance, and even a bad thing. Therefore, democratic politics will not operate on its own; it requires the people and government officials who represent their interests to drive and practice it. Democracy is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean democracy is perfect in everything. Democracy is far from flawless; it has many inherent shortcomings. However, among all political systems invented and implemented by humans so far, democracy is one with the fewest flaws. In other words, relatively speaking, democracy is the best political system humans have ever devised. Or as a famous statesman once said, democracy is a relatively bad political system. The interviews collected in this book broadly cover the author's main research areas and reflect the author's representative theories on some important issues. Since these are interview articles, the primary audience is not professional scholars but general readers, so academic norms are not paid much attention, and the focus is on making the content clear and easy to understand. For some issues, only brief mentions are made without thorough elaboration.