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universal template for democracy . Root gives numerous examples from the post-communist states to Turkey and Latin America to make this point .
However , this does not mean that states have nothing in common . Modern states have similar functional requirements in the solution of collective action problems . They need to extend cooperation beyond close kin or direct reciprocity . Hence different paths can converge . This is similar to parallel evolution in biology where entirely different species can appear physically very similar due to the functional constraints of their environment . This is very different from Modernisation Theory that supposes all follow the same evolutionary path like a wagon train .
Again Root compares the trajectories of Europe , considering France , England , and Germany , with that of China . Europe after centuries of competition and bloody conflict converged on a governance structure that incorporated various aspects from each other . China followed an entirely different path . Yet each needed to solve similar functional problems . Each needed a functional bureaucracy for example . Yet how these functional requirements for state building were established was very different :
Long before France , England , and Germany , China acquired state capacity by providing the social mechanisms and symbolic references needed to extend the altruistic basis of human sentiment to non-kin members . The properties of trust , cooperation , and social coordination were ethically and politically defined . Key long-term investments to ensure the collective good were routine . ( p . 194 )
China has converged on “ bureaucratic inclusiveness ” rather than liberal democracy . In a nutshell this involves co-opting rising elites into the system via allocating privileges 2 .
Root concludes that :
Many of China ’ s main institutional features were derived in relative isolation from the West , and even though the two may cope with similar domestic and economic challenges , such as dependence on the larger global economy , China will not replicate the governance trajectory of the West . It may display analogous traits arising from the need for adaptation to similar global contingencies but will remain on a fundamentally different trajectory that continues to diverge from that of the liberal West . ( p . 194 )
This has obvious policy implications and Root makes clear that Western policy makers need to look beyond the fantasy that liberal democracy will somehow emerge to address the problems that China will face in the near future : that it is increasingly integrated into the global economy and thus it can not achieve its goals without coevolving with others . Centralised control is not an option in a globalised networked world .
Root identifies a number of policy related issues that China will need to address in this regard .
The Future – East or West ?
In the final two chapters of the book a big
issue is addressed : Will East and West form a new international order or will there be increasing tension through competition to expand influence and power ?
2
A similar process , it might be argued , is where large corporations such as Google and Facebook simply buy promising start-ups rather than compete with them .
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