In this collection of articles by the Chinese sociologist Sun Liping devoted to the most recent developments in Chinese society, each of the chapters deals with a different subject: corruption, social security, economic reforms … The common thread of the work is however clear: to restore meaning to the reforms carried out currently in China.
In this collection of articles by the Chinese sociologist Sun Liping devoted to the most recent developments in Chinese society, each of the chapters deals with a different subject: corruption, social security, economic reforms … The common thread of the work is however clear: to restore meaning to the reforms carried out currently in China. The author, professor of sociology at the Tsinghua University of Beijing, had started his career with research on the “ Chinese modernization ». Since the late 1990s, however, it has been more applied to describe the resulting social crisis, and has declined the theme of a “ social fracture »Chinese in many works: Fracture: Chinese society since the 90s of XXe century (2003), Imbalance: logic of function of a fracture company (2004) or Puts: conflicts of interest and the harmony of a fracture company (2006).
In Defend the last lineSun Liping seeks to understand why institutional reforms (legal system, administrative procedures) tend to fail in China. He notes that since the launch of reforms in the 1980s, the authorities have drawn up a number of laws and regulations, but that they rarely operate as planned. For example, Chinese measures against corruption are no less
sophisticated than those applied by Western countries ; In some respects, they are even more complex and above all more severe. However, they do not prevent the corruption from flourishing at all levels of social life. Reason would not reside so much in the nature of the measures themselves as in the weakness of the “ ground To which they are applied: what the author calls the “ fundamental social order In other words, the moral sense that governs interactions and exchanges in everyday life.
In general, explains Liping, the “ fundamental order From a company is stable and only evolves very slowly, regardless of changes at the top of power. In the case of contemporary China, however, it would be reached by the violence and the speed of the transformations in progress: the “ last line Defense of society would have fallen. For at least three reasons. First, the different social groups – the elites, the emerging middle class and the popular classes – tend to isolate themselves from each other and to experience great mutual distrust. Second, the mechanisms guaranteeing fair legal proceedings and a minimum of justice are still lacking in China: the victims of injustices still do not find a place to claim compensation. Third, pragmatism applies in all areas of social life: efficiency being considered as supreme value, we have even accepted the idea that equity and justice can simply consist in promoting efficiency. Ethics and morality having fallen into disuse, individuals would be forced to defend their interests by cunning or violence.
In a society whose “ basic order Is broken, the laws and regulations become paper rags. This is why real reforms cannot focus only on institutions and procedures, but must endeavor to recreate and defend the autonomy and moral sense of social life. Unfortunately, Liping remains at the diagnosis and this general proposal ; As for the question of how to recreate concretely the “ last line Defense, he leaves the reader hungry.