Around the world, from Poland to Spain to Turkey, Israel, India and the U.S., constitutional democracy is undergoing a stress test. Meanwhile, China , which doesn’t practice constitutional democracy or aspire to it, is trying to demonstrate that it can structure a legitimate government by evolving its own authoritarian structures of control. Since Deng stepped back from political life, China (read: the party) has undergone two highly significant transitions, each separated by a decade. He’s turning his immediate predecessors into transitional figures, rather than the shapers of the new normal.Globally, almost no country is directly copying the Chinese system of government. But China’s successes are one important reason that constitutional democracy no longer seems like an inevitable or necessary form of government.How China fares under Xi’s new dispensation thus has major consequences for constitutional democracy around the world.

Source: Economic Times October 25, 2017 01:41 UTC