Inching toward open politics

Politics in China today may well come close to what Deng and other revolutionary elders had in mind in the early 1990s-with a mixed economy, a modernizing ideology of "scientific socialism" and continued political monopoly by the party-state bureaucracy. But this political prescription is no longer accepted without question by younger members of China's elite. Second, it is even more questionable whether the current political arrangement is sustainable in practical terms given the escalating pace of change in China. Many inside China ask how much longer the mixed economy and growing diversity within society can coexist with an obsolete political system that has proved unable to maintain discipline either within the bureaucracy or over society.2 There is a strong sense that China's leaders are out of touch with the new circumstances and the need for interest articulation, transparency and accountability.