Yu Keping and Chinese Intellectual Discourse on Good Governance

摘要

By reviewing the ideas of Yu Keping, one of the most prominent Chinese theorists on Chinese-style democracy and a key contributor to Chinese intellectual discourse on good governance, this article has two objectives: to fill a research gap in China studies by examining influential discourse during the past decade; and to shed light on Yu's controversial conception of Chinese-style democracy, which is intertwined with his views on good governance. We find that the discourse revolves around the call to "move China towards good governance." First, the ultimate objective of China's political reform is to move towards good governance, and not towards what Western social scientists call "democracy." Second, "good government" and civil society are two keys for achieving good governance, which demonstrates that Yu's basic orientation is liberal. Third, governance reform, constituting a major component of China's political reform, has achieved much progress.%俞可平是关于中国式民主理论最有声望的中国思想家之一、以及中国国内关于知识分子善治话语的最重要学者。通过考察俞可平的相关著作,我们试图达到如下两个目的:善治话语作为过去十余年中国一个有影响力的知识分子话语，但在中国研究中尚未得到充分的学术关注，本文旨在填补这个空白；俞可平的中国式民主理论在海内外颇受争议、有许多令人混淆之处。因为俞可平的中国式民主观与他关于善治的观点是相互关联的，通过讨论他的善治理论,本文试图理清这些混淆。本文发现中国的知识分子善治话语围绕着"让中国走向善治"的呼吁，包括三个观点:第一，中国政治改革的最终目标是走向善治，不是走向西方社会科学家所说的"民主"。第二，"善政"和公民社会是达到善治的两个关键，这表明俞可平的基本倾向是自由主义的。第三，中国的治理改革，作为政治改革的一个主要部分，已经取得了很大成绩。