Tocqueville and Democracy in China

Tocqueville’s insights on the roots, dangers, and remedies regarding democratic despotism can help reassess the difficulties and prospects of liberalizing China from its millennium-long legacy of centralized authoritarianism. Increasing equality of conditions may lead to despotism when isolated individuals pursue their narrow interests, eventually losing their taste for liberty and capability for self-governance. Yet centralized authoritarianism faces various internal contradictions, as illustrated by China’s many governance problems. When combined with recent research, Tocqueville’s insights on the institutions and habits of liberty can help reimagine a path for liberalizing countries with authoritarian legacies while (1) avoiding political unrest/disintegration when loosening up centralized control and (2) fitting traditional values into a liberal, democratic order. These insights can help address the tension between national unity and local self-governance, a perennial concern in both traditional and contemporary China.