Wang Shaoguang

{{Short description|Chinese political scientist}} {{family name hatnote|[[Wang (surname)|Wang]] ({{noitalics|{{lang|zh|王}}}})|lang=Chinese}} {{Use British English|date=July 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = Professor | name = Wang Shaoguang | honorific_suffix = | image = Wang shaoguang.jpg | image_upright = yes | alt = Wang Shaoguang | caption = Wang Shaoguang in a 2013 [[UN University]] interview | native_name = 王绍光 | native_name_lang = zh | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1954|01|31|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Wuhan|Wuhan, Hubei]], China | residence = | education = [[Peking University]] (LL.B., 1982)<br>[[Cornell University]] (Ph.D., 1990) | thesis_title = Failure of Charisma: The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = [[Chinese New Left]] | doctoral_advisor = | influences = [[Carl Schmitt]]<ref name="Sapio">{{cite web |last=Sapio |first=Flora |date=7 October 2015 |title=Carl Schmitt in China |url=https://www.thechinastory.org/2015/10/carl-schmitt-in-china/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729151001/https://www.thechinastory.org/2015/10/carl-schmitt-in-china/ |archive-date=29 July 2019 |access-date=29 July 2019 |website=The China Story}}</ref> | discipline = [[Political science]] | sub_discipline =  | workplaces = [[Yale University]] (1990–2000)<br>[[Chinese University of Hong Kong]] (1999–present) | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  }} {{Contemporary Chinese political thought|newleft}} '''Wang Shaoguang''' (born 31 January 1954;<ref>{{cite LCAuth |id=n94075929}}</ref> {{lang-zh|s=王绍光|p=Wáng Shàoguāng}}) is a Chinese political scientist. He is currently an emeritus professor at the Department of Government and Public Administration of the [[Chinese University of Hong Kong]]. A critic of Western [[representative democracy]], his particular research interests include the history of the [[Cultural Revolution]], [[sortition]], the [[welfare state]], and the [[comparative politics]] of East Asia.<ref name="CUHKbio" /> He advocates for the [[China model]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569317.2024.2370972#abstract | doi=10.1080/13569317.2024.2370972 | title=The mirage of the alleged Chinese new left | date=2024 | last1=Lei | first1=Letian | journal=Journal of Political Ideologies | pages=1–22 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

{{anchor|Career|Biography}} ==Life== Born in [[Wuhan]], [[Hubei]], Wang worked as a high school teacher in Wuhan from 1972 to 1977. He then studied at [[Peking University]], graduating in 1982, and moved to [[Cornell University]] in the U.S., where he received a doctorate in 1990. He taught at [[Yale University]] from 1990 to 2000 before moving to the [[Chinese University of Hong Kong]], where he became a professor at the Department of Government and Public Administration.<ref name="CUHKbio">{{cite web |url=http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/gpa/wang_files/BIO.htm |title=Shaoguang Wang |website=Chinese University of Hong Kong |accessdate=30 July 2019 }}</ref> In 1993, Wang co-authored the "Wang Shaoguang Proposal" with economist [[Hu Angang]], a public policy report that argued that the taxation reforms of [[Deng Xiaoping]] had weakened the Chinese state, and advocated fiscal centralisation in response.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Dongen |first=Els |year=2019 |title=Realistic Revolution: Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics after 1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1caVDwAAQBAJ |place=[[Cambridge, England|Cambridge]] |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1108421300 |pages=41–2 }}</ref>

==Views== Wang is a leading member of the [[Chinese New Left]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shi |first1=Anshu |author-mask=Shi Anshu; |last2=Lachapelle |first2=François |last3=Galway |first3=Matthew |year=2008 |title=The recasting of Chinese socialism: The Chinese New Left since 2000 |journal=China Information |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=140–159: 144 |doi=10.1177/0920203X18760416 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81bd/ecb56214882a5f69f517ee3cf90cc4c95f0b.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190227141622/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81bd/ecb56214882a5f69f517ee3cf90cc4c95f0b.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-02-27 |last=Li |first=He |author-mask=Li He |year=2009 |title=China's New Left |journal=East Asian Policy |volume=1 |number=1 |pages=30–37: 32 |s2cid=21871195 }}</ref>

He is a critic of Western [[representative democracy]], which he believes has failed and degenerated into "[[electocracy]]",<ref name="Zhou1">{{cite book |last=Zhou |first=Lian |author-mask=Zhou Lian |chapter=The Debates in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought |year=2012 |title=Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives |editor-last=Dallmayr |editor-first=Fred |editor-last2=Zhao |editor-first2=Tingyang |pages=26–45: 32 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdBhLeJvO5AC |place=[[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]] |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0813136424 }}</ref> and more generally of the focus on competitive [[election]]s as part of political reform. Wang argues that the view of democracy as primarily ''electoral'' democracy only became accepted in the postwar period, owing mainly to the work of [[Joseph Schumpeter]] and his book ''[[Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy]]''. Instead, he states, the "people should be involved in the whole process of decision-making, not only in choosing the decision-maker ''per se''".<ref name="Frenkiel">{{cite web |url=https://booksandideas.net/Political-change-and-democracy-in.html |last=Frenkiel |first=Émilie |date=15 July 2009 |title=Political change and democracy in China: An interview with Wang Shaoguang |website=Books & Ideas |accessdate=30 July 2019 }}</ref>

He also distinguishes [[accountability]] from [[social responsibility|responsibility]] and political responsiveness, holding that genuine democracy must combine all three:<ref name="Zhou1" /> "democratic" governments are often accountable in that they may be removed in competitive elections, Wang posits, but they are still not responsive to popular needs and demands.<ref name="Frenkiel" />

==Works== * {{cite book |last=Wang |first=Shaoguang |display-authors=0 |year=1995 |title=Failure of Charisma: The Cultural Revolution in Wuhan |place=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0195859502}} * {{cite book |last1=Wang |first1=Shaoguang |display-authors=0 |last2=Hu |first2=Angang |year=1999 |title=The Political Economy of Uneven Development: The Case of China |place=Armonk |publisher=M. E. Sharpe, Inc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EBP6RSgfXMwC |isbn=9780765602039 |postscript=none }}, with [[Hu Angang]]. * {{cite book |last1=Wang |first1=Shaoguang |display-authors=0 |last2=Hu |first2=Angang |year=2001 |title=The Chinese Economy in Crisis: State Capacity and Tax Reform |place=Armonk |publisher=M. E. Sharpe, Inc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLHYxmCiC3AC |isbn=9780765607652 |postscript=none }}, with [[Hu Angang]].

== References == {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite web|url=https://www.readingthechinadream.com/wang-shaoguang-traditional-moral-politics.html|title=Traditional Moral Politics and Contemporary Concepts of Governance|translator=David Ownby|website=Reading the China Dream}} Interview with Wang Shaoguang by journalist Ma Ya, originally published in 2012.

==External links== * [http://www.gpa.cuhk.edu.hk/en-gb/people/academic-staff/faculty/prof-wang-shaoguang Faculty page] at Chinese University of Hong Kong

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Shaoguang}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:1954 births]] [[Category:Chinese political scientists]] [[Category:Chinese political philosophers]] [[Category:Chinese New Left]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Chinese University of Hong Kong]] [[Category:Peking University alumni]] [[Category:Cornell University alumni]] [[Category:Yale University faculty]] [[Category:21st-century Chinese philosophers]]