{"id":114294,"date":"2010-10-23T10:27:11","date_gmt":"2010-10-23T17:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=114294"},"modified":"2012-03-15T12:01:24","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T19:01:24","slug":"richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Baum: Obstacles to Political Reform in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UCLA political scientist Richard Baum<a href=\"http:\/\/fivebooks.com\/interviews\/richard-baum-on-obstacles-political-reform-china\"> is interviewed by Five Books<\/a> about the top books he recommends that look at obstacles to China&#8217;s reform:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nWhat\u2019s your sense of where the whole thing is headed?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m caught between these bookends that I described earlier. Some days I wake up and I think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dnb_sb_noss%26enc%3D1%26rh%3Di%253Aaps%252Ck%253Aminxin%2520pei%26field-keywords%3Dminxin%2520pei%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps%26ajr%3D3&#038;tag=chinadigitalt-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957\">Minxin Pei<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chinadigitalt-20&#038;l=ur2&#038;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> has got it right, and other days I think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26tag%3Dmozilla-20%26index%3Dblended%26link_code%3Dqs%26field-keywords%3Ddali%2520yang%26sourceid%3DMozilla-search&#038;tag=chinadigitalt-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957\">Dali Yang<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chinadigitalt-20&#038;l=ur2&#038;o=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/> has got it right. There\u2019s simply no relevant precedent for what is happening in China. To date there has been no example of a successful, evolutionary post-Leninist transition. There have been a number of radical anti-Leninist overthrows and pro-Leninist backlashes, but nowhere else has there been a sustained effort to graft a modern, developed market economy on to the political framework of a one-party Leninist dictatorship. I\u2019m just not sure it can be done.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to sound too pessimistic. Maybe China does have a shot at emerging from all of this with a coherent political system that is not recognisably democratic in the Western sense. Maybe a kinder, gentler version of neo-Confucian paternalism can soften the iron fist of Leninism without forcing the party-state to relinquish its power monopoly. But I have my doubts that the current, corrupted relationship between political Leninism and bureaucratic capitalism is tenable in the long run.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UCLA political scientist Richard Baum is interviewed by Five Books about the top books he recommends that look at obstacles to China&#8217;s reform: What\u2019s your sense of where the whole thing is headed? I\u2019m caught between these bookends that I described earlier. Some days I wake up and I think Minxin Pei has got it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,100],"tags":[1611,15187,301,2095],"class_list":["post-114294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-politics","tag-book-reviews","tag-five-books","tag-political-reform","tag-richard-baum","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Richard Baum: Obstacles to Political Reform in China<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Baum: Obstacles to Political Reform in China\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UCLA political scientist Richard Baum is interviewed by Five Books about the top books he recommends that look at obstacles to China&#8217;s reform: What\u2019s your sense of where the whole thing is headed? I\u2019m caught between these bookends that I described earlier. Some days I wake up and I think Minxin Pei has got it [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-23T17:27:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-15T19:01:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chinadigitalt-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophie Beach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sophie Beach\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sophie Beach\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/7f19e31b674d57a7dc20aab8e908c663\"},\"headline\":\"Richard Baum: Obstacles to Political Reform in China\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-23T17:27:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-15T19:01:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/\"},\"wordCount\":229,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/10\/richard-baum-obstacles-to-political-reform-in-china\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chinadigitalt-20&l=ur2&o=1\",\"keywords\":[\"book reviews\",\"five books\",\"political reform\",\"richard baum\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture &amp; 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