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China is probably most stable system throughout written history, practicing roughly same government/legal system and its approach to relation between government

China is probably most stable system throughout written history, practicing roughly same government/legal system and its approach to relation between government and individual person for the past two millennia. Sure, if you ignore the history of China's Imperial dynasties, Mongolian rule, British rule, Japanese rule, and Mao/Early CCP. But other then all of these different governments and legal systems, Chinese has had the same government and legal system. In western civilizations monarchy powers slowly eroded and had to either give concessions or be overthrown in a violent revolt. This never happened in China. China overthrew its monarchy in 1911. Hundreds of thousands died. Since then China has had multiple violent revolutions resulting in the death of millions, though none of them were against the monarchy.

lmilcin 6y ago
> China overthrew its monarchy in 1911. Hundreds of thousands died. So you say every time there is a revolt and one government is replaced with another it means a fundamentally different way of governing people, different political system? The reality is that nothing really changed and China and, again, I will invoke "On Origins of Political Order" because it is very well explained there. Just because a monarchy has been replaced with Mao (de facto monarch) and then with single party doesn't mean people gained any rights. While people in western world were slowly getting more rights (shifting from a absolute monarch to rule of law to concept of human rights) nothing of that sort happened in China. Think of communist party as a collection of princes that band together to govern a huge mass of people but not for the good of the people, but rather for the good of the party (collection of princes). Where those goals coincide this results in goals for the good of the people but where they do not, this will result in killings, mass incarcerations, etc.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  I think we actually agree and your follow-up comment makes it clear that I misunderstood your point. I was focusing on a nitpick and that's my bad.

lmilcin 6y ago

> China overthrew its monarchy in 1911. Hundreds of thousands died. So you say every time there is a revolt and one government is replaced with another it means a fundamentally different way of governing people, different political system? The reality is that nothing really changed and China and, again, I will invoke "On Origins of Political Order" because it is very well explained there. Just because a monarchy has been replaced with Mao (de facto monarch) and then with single party doesn't mean people gained any rights. While people in western world were slowly getting more rights (shifting from a absolute monarch to rule of law to concept of human rights) nothing of that sort happened in China. Think of communist party as a collection of princes that band together to govern a huge mass of people but not for the good of the people, but rather for the good of the party (collection of princes). Where those goals coincide this results in goals for the good of the people but where they do not, this will result in killings, mass incarcerations, etc.

gamblor956 6y ago
I think we actually agree and your follow-up comment makes it clear that I misunderstood your point. I was focusing on a nitpick and that's my bad.