Agenda of Historical Political Science in China

Chinese political studies need a paradigm revolution. Given China's long historical tradition and rich legacy of historical records, historical political science could be the best starting point for a breakthrough. There are three major approaches in how issues about China are considered in historical political science: (1) produce a full description of how the form of the Chinese state evolved through history to reveal the origin of its contemporary form, understand the trend of political development, and discuss solutions to political improvement; (2) through historical and comparative political analysis, comprehensively explore the theoretical significance of China being the first to establish a modern form of state, while following the system of prefectures and counties for most of its history, and continuously expanding and maintaining its scale to rethink and rebuild the general theories on politics and state; and (3) reveal how China interacts with other countries in the political arena, contributing to global historical political science from China's point of view, and studying the history of the evolution of the global political system to discuss the positive role that China can play in the improvement of the world system.