Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will
Dominate the Twenty-First Century
by Stefan Halper, Basic Books, 2010
Reviewed by Su-Mei Ooi
Halper's book does a brilliant job of
providing the reader with a clear picture of how China's economic
clout is now coupled with a growing sophistication in international
diplomacy. Nevertheless, while Halper provides a convincing account
of how China's economic rise is allowing many developing countries
to circumvent governance requirements attached to Western aid and
loans he fails to convince the reader that there is such a thing as
a "Beijing Consensus." What is clearly a convergence of interests
amongst those who do not agree with Washington can hardly qualify
as a counter-hegemonic ideological consensus. What of course
interests many countries is China's ability thus far to decouple
political from economic development. While Halper discusses the
complexities of China's modernization in Chapter 5, he refrains
from predicting if this decoupling is merely temporary and suggests
only that existing social pressures will remain contained largely
by continued economic growth. If the "China model" will dominate
the twenty-first century, however, China's socio-political
stability must at least last that long. All in all, Halper's book
is accessible, enjoyable and a good introduction to China and its
role in our world today, but leaves some crucial questions
unanswered.
- Su-Mei Ooi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at
Butler University.