The Chinese Dilemma: The Synthesis of Marx and Marshall

Abstract

Western scholars’ attitudes to the rise of China are divided. Some believe that the rise of China will be a great event with historical significance; the emergence of the ‘China model’ not only signifies the transfer of hegemony, but also marks a radical reversal in the history of human civilization. ‘History can henceforth simply be divided into BC and AC: Before China and After China’. Others think that the ‘China model’ is just a society of capitalism with Chinese characteristics or eastern authoritarian capitalism. Actually, the reality of contemporary China is ambiguous. The Chinese experiment can be understood neither as a typical socialist reform nor as an approach that has cast socialism to the wind. The mainstream discourses of the Communist Party of China contain some enlightened elements, but have not formed a rational value system. In this paper, I argue that the synthesis of Marx's theory of emancipation and Marshall's theory of citizenship will lead China out of its theoretical and practical dilemmas. Marshall's theory of citizenship was a systemic summary of the achievements of progressive politics for the last two centuries. The trilogy of civil right, political right and social right provides the normative basis of the basic modern institutions of the market economy, democratic politics and social welfare. However, in the end, Marshall was a bourgeois reformist; what he wanted to do was not to eliminate the inequality and class division in liberal–democratic–capitalist society, but rather to lessen its worst effects. Marxism is a radical vision of human emancipation; its basic content involves the full development of every individual and their free association. The future vision of society Marxism anticipates and the social model Marshall explicated are not opposites. Both of them insist that the freedom and equality bestowed on us by law rely on certain necessary social and material conditions. However, Marshall stopped half-way. Today, Marxism itself should be understood as an immanent critique and radicalizing of Marshall's conception of citizenship. The reform of China is at a crossroads: how to promote the social and political reforms in order to achieve the goal of socialism? China must find the missing link between Marxism and the theory of citizenship. In the historical context of contemporary China, the Marxism under Mao represented the revolution of the peasantry; the Marxism under the reforms of Deng Xiaoping was that of market socialism and the triumph over underdevelopment. Today, we are entering a new age of Marxism, the epoch of full socialist citizenship. This new revision must be grounded in the unification of Marx and Marshall. This does not mean we can throw out the Marxist ideal of radical emancipation, but means we have to admit that the full Marshallian citizenship is a realist bridge towards true socialism in China. 1This paper was funded by the program of Marxism and Liberalism in the Discourse of Modernity (NCET-08-0136). The article was originally read at the Left Forum Conference in March 2011. The author expresses sincere gratitude to Professor Norman Levine in Phoenix, who encouraged me to submit this article to Critique and assisted in preparing this English version.