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Professor Francis Fukuyama: Qin Dynasty China Is the First Modern State in History

2013-03-14 17:15:00



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Peking University (PKU) Department of Philosophy celebrates its centennial anniversary late last year. As part of the commemoration events, renowned Japanese-American scholar Professor Francis Fukuyama was invited to deliver a lecture entitled “Eastern and Western Political Order in Historical Prospective.” The lecture was held on October 17, 2012 at the Yingjie Exchange Centre. Hosted by Professor Wang Bo, Dean of the Department of Philosophy, this session attracted an audience of more than 300 people. The lecture was also part of the PKU Global Fellowship Program, and Professor Fukuyama is the first overseas guest speaker from the field of humanities.
 
Professor Francis Fukuyama is currently the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow and Resident of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He is perhaps best known as the author of The End of History and the Last Man, published in 1992. In the book, he argued that with the end of the cold war, the progression of human history has also come to an end as the struggle between ideologies comes to a stop. The book garnered much international attention and discussion, and has since been translated into more than 20 languages. Twenty years on, in his new book, Origins of Political Order, Professor Fukuyama hopes to examine the new political order through the study of historical examples, ranging from pre-human era through to the French Revolution.
 
In his lecture at PKU, Professor Fukuyama made a comparative study between the Chinese and Western political systems, of which he asserted that “many of my views of traditional China are based on the political structure of the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC).” He emphasized the importance of the role of the political system “as the basis for economy development and social development.” He raised the point that his ideas are based on the late Professor Samuel Huntington’s paradigm which was represented in the book titled Political Order in Changing Societies.
 
A standard political system consists of six important parts: Economic growth, legitimacy, social mobilization, the state, rule of law and accountability, with the latter three being political factors. Professor Fukuyama explained that the multiple forms of social development are results of the interactions between these factors.
 
With regards to the state, Professor Fukuyama emphasized that: “The best definition came from Max Weber: the state is about the monopoly of power over defined territories. But this power must come with legitimacy, and the best way to enforce power is one whereby citizens are willing to accept and see it as just.” In addition, Professor Fukuyama explained that the modern state, as opposed to the traditional state, is built upon objective measures such as equality amongst citizens, instead of social interaction such as familial bond or “contacts.” In this regard, “many states in Africa and the Middle East cannot be considered as modern states, since their political structures are built upon friendships and family ties.”
 
Professor Fukuyama then went on to explain the rule of law and accountability, which are essential components of the political order. Regarding the rule of law, he points out that the important thing to note is “whether the law applies to those in power, whether the most powerful statesman is able to amend the law based on his interest. Law should serve as a balance to the state, which holds monopoly over power.” On the issue of accountability, he noted that “it is a better word than democracy at attempting to explain my ideas. Accountability is a broader concept than democracy. It implies whether the government is genuinely concerned with the welfare of the society, allowing us to differentiate good governments from bad ones. In East Asian states, accountability is a very important tradition. In the twentieth century, countries including Japan, South Korea and Singapore did not have a democratic system. However, their political elites did consider about their accountability to the society. This is remarkably different from countries in Africa and America.”
 
Based on these, Professor Fukuyama suggested that the modern state first appeared in China as early as the Qin Dynasty. This was way earlier than most of the Western countries. According to him, “the states make war, the war makes states. War have modernised the concept of the state. At the end of the preceding Zhou Dynasty, there were frequent wars. Many independent political entities merged into a few big political blocs, leading to the Qin Dynasty. During that time, there were 548 central taxation systems in China, thus there was a need of a strong civil service as well.”
 
“On the other hand, there was a clear absence of a responsible government and the rule of law during that period of Chinese history, although moral constraints as advocated by Confucianism could have compensated for this to some extent,” he added.
 
Professor Fukuyama compared this with other European states, where their political developments took a significantly different path from China. “The first product of Europe’s political structure was the rule of law, which was built by the Roman Catholic Church. In the Middle Ages, there was no concept of ‘family’ among priests in order to prevent them from abusing their power for their own benefits. European feudalism was built upon law and contract relationship, thus powerful institutions can already be seen in Middle Ages Europe. However, the second step towards statehood only came during the 17th and 18th century, such as France under the reign of King Louis XIV and Russia under Tsar Alexander the First. In addition, Parliamentary democracy began in the 17th Century. This created a body that had the authority to decide whether the King is allowed to impose tax upon his people, and the concept of no taxation without representation. Legitimacy then became the most important factor, and that John Locke said the only legitimate government was one who got the consent.” Professor Fukuyama argued that the difference in the path of political evolution could well account for the present different political forms between China and the West.
 
A single literary culture provided China with the continuity which was unseen in Westmost other developing countries. Professor Fukuyama thought that geographical conditions allowed China to develop a modern state much earlier. However, while ancient China fulfilled all of Weber’s condition for a “modern state,” Weber believed that China remained a “traditional state.” Prof Fukuyama explained that “There is a common assumption amongst sociologists in the 19th century; the reason for this is that China did not witness industrialisation nor modern civil service, thus cannot be considered as a modern state.” In comparison, wars have pushed Europe’s technological development, including weaponry and other areas that contributed to its economic development.
 
In his final analysis, Professor Fukuyama pointed out the major challenges that China and the US would face in the future political order. He pointed out that “The current government in China is much similar with the traditional strong central government in her history. China is being confronted with the danger of power abuse, thus more efforts should be made in constructing a responsible government and enhancing the rule of law.” With special respect to the current situation in China, Professor Fukuyama also observed that with a rapid expansion of the middle class, there is a need for political reform to accommodate such a change in social stratum.
 
“For the West, the biggest problem lies in the political system. Western political structure is unable to come to an agreement with regards to long term socio-economic problems. The decision-making process of EU cannot achieve consent, allowing the economic problem to grow along and become larger. We must see that decisive action may not represent the whole community. "
 
As for the US, Professor Fukuyama acknowledged that “There are numerous problems in the political systems, as demonstrated especially in the financial crisis. Every society is faced with certain important challenges and the possibility of political decay. The way to prevent such decay is to keep a balanced development of the six elements in the paradigm.” When answering questions from the floor, Professor Fukuyama also maintained that China’s political development will continue to have a great influence on the future of the world.
 
(Quotations cited above are all translated from the recording of the Chinese translation provided on the spot.)
 
Written by: Heng Kang Wei
Edited by: Shi Dingli