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Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons

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Rawls

2005

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Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy

Decent Democratic Centralism, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2004

Decent Democratic Centralism, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

Are there any coherent and defensible alternatives to liberal democracy? The author examines the possibility that a reformed democratic centralism-the principle around which China's cur- rent polity is officially organized-might be legitimate, according to both an inside and an out- side perspective. The inside perspective builds on contemporary Chinese political theory; the outside perspective critically deploys Rawls's notion ofa "decent society " as its standard. Along the way, the authorpays particular attention to the kinds and degree ofpluralism a decent society can countenance, and to the specific institutions in China that might enable the realization of a genuine and/or decent …