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flyby@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I’ve seen this picture used in some pro-China instances, I don’t think it’s a useful statistic in a slightest. It can just as well show how indoctrinated people are in China (and it in fact does by looking at a second graph, it’s comical to claim that China is a democracy)

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Riverside@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

It can just as well show how indoctrinated people are in China (and it in fact does by looking at a second graph, it’s comical to claim that China is a democracy)

Of course, the real democracies are the ones people hate. I feel so democratic here in Spain, where we get to enjoy voting once every 4 years the colour of the party that will apply neoliberal austerity policy and progress in the erosion of healthcare, education and pensions! So democratic when every 4, at most 8 years, people hate-vote their way out of the existing government coalition and move to the other side of the isle which repeats exactly the same EU-dictated policy.

I feel so democratic knowing that, if you start a leftist party, the deep state will literally fabricate false evidence of funding by Venezuela and Iran and leak it to all capitalist media to discredit you and demolish your party (read about Podemos and the Informe PISA). So democratic that the institutions do nothing about the rise of the far right in Europe at the same time! God I love our democracy

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Cowbee@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
China is democratic. The Chinese political system is based on whole-process people’s democracy, a form of consultative democracy. The local government is directly elected, and then these governments elect people to higher rungs, meaning any candidate at the top level must have worked their way up from the bottom and directly proved themselves. Combining this consultative, ground-up democracy with top-down economic planning is the key to China’s success.

I highly recommend Roland Boer’s Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance. Socialist democracy has been imperfect, but has gone through a number of changes and adaptations over the years as we’ve learned more from testing theory to practice. Boer goes over the history behind socialist democracy in this textbook.

When looking at why people in China believe it’s democratic, it’s because policy in China consistently aims at satisfying the needs of the people and consistently achieves results. Democracy is rule by the majority, and in China the working classes are in power. “Indoctrination” doesn’t work that way, Chinese citizens are more than capable of understanding if rule by the majority exists or not, and trying to rely on a narrative of “indoctrination” just sidesteps the entire conversation.

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