Abstract
Professor Daniel Saadoun distinguishes three features that are deemed essential in a modern democracy: universal suffrage, the inscription in the preamble of the Constitution of a set of rules that the State cannot modify or erase and the obligation for the State to look after all the rules adopted: the State is not beyond the Law i.e, the principle of Rule of Law. As expected, China is far from reaching all these requirements. Any kind of popular expression is prohibited. There is no such thing as a Declaration of Human Rights, because the major tenets of the regime's political philosophy are not based on an abstract conception of the human beings, for example, freedom of religion is unconceivable in China, were Christian parishioners and Falun Gong practitioners are actively persecuted. Yet, the third characteristic feature of a modern democracy, Rule of Law, is being achieved at least partly today in China. Since 1989, the technocratic rule has emphasized the necessity to implement and take care over the rights of workers, peasants etc. These changes can lead us to cast doubt on the real democracy forces in China, apart from a minority of students and pundits. Has the democratic ideal really been replaced by the day-to-day progress of Rule of Law? Is China's mix of economic performance and Rule of Law really viable? Has China staged a new paradigm of modernization? Or, is this move towards Rule of Law something only transitional, periodical, that will not prevent China from democratization, eventually? In this case, should we favor a bottom-up or a top-down approach for China's move towards democracy?
