A Critical Appraisal of the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness in the Debate of the Necessity of Democracy in Twenty-First-Century Mainland China

Abstract

The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness is Reinhold Niebuhr’s major treatise on democratic theory. A reassessment of the book with particular attention to Niebuhr’s theological analyses of human sinfulness, individual ownership, and toleration may help us to understand the political and economic situation in China. The Communist Party of mainland China (CPC) consistently upholds the exclusiveness of the Party’s leadership and a one-party political system. This article will explore whether it is plausible to construct a free, just, and affluent society without democracy, as the CPC proclaims.