Democracy Meritocracy Or Both

On Tuesday, September 15, CASBS hosted its first quarterly symposium of the academic year - “Democracy, Meritocracy, or Both?” - as part of its Evidence of Change series. Nicolas Berggruen, co-author of Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way between West and East (Polity, 2012) and chairman of the newly-launched Philosophy and Culture Center at the Berggruen Institute; and Daniel A. Bell, Berggruen Research Affiliate at CASBS in 2015-16 and author of The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy (Princeton, 2015) discussed one of the most important political developments of the twenty-first century. CASBS Director Margaret Levi moderated a Q&A session after the speaker presentations.

[@richiesd1]

Very interesting to watch this 5 years later. Seems like meritocracy in China is working pretty well. Daniel Bell’s faith in China has held so far.

[@betsy122]

Daniel Bell is just great !

[@aznknight22]

recognizing the achievements of the Chinese model over the American liberal democracy in the mainstream American society is like mainstream scientist taking UFO sightings seriously in mainstream academia. Look at two great academics feels like two scared children in front of an angry mob.

[@saptarsimondal7653]

This European guy is a lot more knowledgeable than Daniel. It seems that Daniel is much interested in finding out the cracks and loopholes in the Chinese model without noticing the real development of the Chinese people on the ground. And he is reluctant to say much about the western democracy where the political elites are in the pockets of the big monopoly capitals and serve their interests at the expense of the masses.

[@quantly]

People must review all the countries in the world which transplant DEMOCRACY into their political systems after WWII. Most of those transplantations turned out to be a failure.
This is explained by the fact that political system must be established upon the culture and tradition.
Taiwan has the same culture as China and Singapore. After they employed a generalized DEMOCRACY, they sacrifice their development and the living condition. When I talked with mainland Chinese about things happening in Taiwan, I find that most of mainland Chinese have seen exactly the result of democracy and many consider it to be a disaster for China if we follow Taiwan. The conflict between parties is using the public on their own purpose and no improvement can be carried out by the fighting between parties.
Democracy in Chinese culture turns out to be a POPULISM.

[@jauntyjaun]

51:57 well..

[@KingThallion]

45:30 that guy is everything I hate. I understand where he is coming from with %100 voter participation, but man.. media elite curate debate properly.. are a you real person?

[@Peter-sj3zi]

Under democracy, you cannot vote out a bad leader. It is the two-term limit that gets rid of the leader. Without the two-term limit, a leader can stay forever. Without the two-term limit, I am sure Trump would be in power forever.

[@zahirayub9778]

100% vote nice but the problem is there is no way all the population will vote for only one guy there will always be some one who vote for someone else and no one will become president or PM

[@andtam008]

Ha ha ha, Bell mentioned Trump! That's funny. It must be his worst nightmare.

[@AtenaHena]

37:42 its funny cuz they're getting rid of term limits in china

[@spadeysay6846]

The world, including China , would be very happy for the US to keep its current political system to itself, democratic or otherwise. But why and what makes America thinks that it has the democratic rights to decide how China, an independent and sovereign nation should rule itself?. What democracy is America talking about; when America, a country with a very very short history of democracy and all the other "values" that it likes to boast about, with a population of 328 million citizens decide what China, with a population of 1.4 billion citizens, what system of political governance it should have. China would have more legitimacy to decide for the US how and who should rule the US if Americans really think that democracy is what it claims to be.
For a country that is formed on the basis of the genocide of its natives, developed and build from the blood, sweat and bones of black slaves, with every inch of its lands and islands stolen and robbed from others, where until less than a hundred years ago, blacks and coloured citizens and even white women were not allowed to vote; to constantly patronise China about having democracy is the height of hypocrisy and the bottomless pit of moral righteousness.
America's history of its foreign policy, until this very day, disprove its commitments and beliefs in democracy as it claim. How many countries with democratic system of governments has it subverted? How may dictators has it installed and financed? How many countries has it used state terrorism to bully and brutalised? Human rights? Freedom of speech? Think again. For in reality, the american democratic system is a choice between the Devil and Satan.

[@GMATveteran]

The commenter at around minute 45 claims that "by enlarge", the US has a lot of meritocracy built into its "democratic" system throughout US history, judging by America's ascendance over the entirety of its history. Perhaps he should change his assumptions about how "democratic" the US really was throughout most of its history until the Voting Rights Act. Well over half of US citizens had no right to political participation whatsoever during most of that history. Even those who could participate do so in a consistently rigged system, either through rampant voter fraud (which was the norm back then), or manipulation by the oligarchs & monopolistic tycoons. Having democratic ASPIRATIONS is quite a different thing from having a real democracy.

[@mackzhang]

Hheheh climate change and America 2017

[@incastinc]

Meritocracy: All people in the US should get FREE EDUCATION including college. The US can afford it. Ask India (same problem), will guide you, free of cost. 1. Blacks-only schools are GARBAGE, to put it bluntly. High school graduates don't have 8th-grade std. in English & Math. They don't get a job. sell drugs and go to jail. (Pittsburgh PA)- Meritocracy: This applies to Private educational institutions. They charge tuition. The students have a "Right to Demand" admission on merit because they are paying, THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY.

[@IRGhost0]

we need to abandon western democracy.