The Politics of Harmonious Society: A Comprehensive Study of the Formulation and Implementation of an Harmonious Developmental Policy

This project analyzed the political process of reforming and establishing institutions for interest coordination in contemporary China, where supposedly reform policies were to be introduced to create a “harmonious society”. Our study has shown that spontaneous or desperate attempts at expressing interests have gained force “from below”, while the response “from above” by the Chinese Communist Party has been delayed since the Party is afraid of relativizing the absolute power that it has enjoyed so far. We could also ascertain that the proliferation of new technology such as the Chinese version of Twitter contributes to strengthening the pressure “from below”.

This project analyzed the political process of reforming and establishing institutions for interest coordination in contemporary China, where supposedly reform policies were to be introduced to create a “harmonious society”. Our study has shown that spontaneous or desperate attempts at expressing interests have gained force “from below”, while the response “from above” by the Chinese Communist Party has been delayed since the Party is afraid of relativizing the absolute power that it has enjoyed so far. We could also ascertain that the proliferation of new technology such as the Chinese version of Twitter contributes to strengthening the pressure “from below”.