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Little is known about the political views of non-dissident Chinese intellectuals. For this book, Émilie Frenkiel has been granted unprecedented access to the discussions of politically committed Chinese who have been part of the intellectual debate on post-Tiananmen reform. Her in-depth research elicits lively views that reflect the yearnings and fears of the country's political elite, and reveal the diversity of approaches to China's democratisation. 'In the west, where most of us think that democracy based on competitive elections is mankind's ultimate and inevitable political journey's e

International audience ; In this paper I conduct a comparative analysis of three Chinese experiments with participatory budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation that has circulated worldwide. Relying on a renewed typology of political representation and ethnographic fieldwork combined with official data collection in Chengdu, Sichuan and Wenling, Zhejiang over seven years, it investigates the expansion and practice of PB and analyzes the relationship between participation and representation. It asserts that in the Chinese context PB cannot be simply reduced to empowering civil society against established representatives or becoming an instrument of legitimization for established elites. In the three investigated cases-which are not representative of Chinese local politics-PB does contribute to opening the decision-making process to formerly excluded participants, who are nonetheless not exactly ordinary citizens but rather local elites and "super residents" bridging the gap between established elites and residents.

International audience ; In this paper I conduct a comparative analysis of three Chinese experiments with participatory budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation that has circulated worldwide. Relying on a renewed typology of political representation and ethnographic fieldwork combined with official data collection in Chengdu, Sichuan and Wenling, Zhejiang over seven years, it investigates the expansion and practice of PB and analyzes the relationship between participation and representation. It asserts that in the Chinese context PB cannot be simply reduced to empowering civil society against established representatives or becoming an instrument of legitimization for established elites. In the three investigated cases-which are not representative of Chinese local politics-PB does contribute to opening the decision-making process to formerly excluded participants, who are nonetheless not exactly ordinary citizens but rather local elites and "super residents" bridging the gap between established elites and residents.

International audience ; This article is devoted to Audrey Tang, who belongs to the young civic hacker group g0v and who became the minister in charge of digital affairs in Taiwan in October 2016. It investigates how digital participatory devices are designed in the Taiwanese context, which is at a crossroads of Western and Chinese influences and has been involved in a process of thorough political renewal since the student occupation of Parliament during the 2014 Sunflower Movement. The article examines the causes for this uncommon encounter between technical know-how, theoretical reflection, and political will. ; Cet article est consacré à Audrey Tang, appartenant au collectif de jeunes hackers citoyens g0v et devenue ministre du Numérique à Taïwan en octobre 2016. Il étudie comment les dispositifs numériques de participation sont fabriqués dans le contexte taïwanais, au croisement des influences occidentales et de l'influence de son voisin chinois, et engagé dans un processus de profond renouvellement politique depuis l'occupation du Parlement par des étudiants lors du mouvement des Tournesols de 2014. L'article enquête sur les raisons d'une rencontre originale entre savoir-faire technique, réflexion théorique et volonté politique.

International audience ; This article is devoted to Audrey Tang, who belongs to the young civic hacker group g0v and who became the minister in charge of digital affairs in Taiwan in October 2016. It investigates how digital participatory devices are designed in the Taiwanese context, which is at a crossroads of Western and Chinese influences and has been involved in a process of thorough political renewal since the student occupation of Parliament during the 2014 Sunflower Movement. The article examines the causes for this uncommon encounter between technical know-how, theoretical reflection, and political will. ; Cet article est consacré à Audrey Tang, appartenant au collectif de jeunes hackers citoyens g0v et devenue ministre du Numérique à Taïwan en octobre 2016. Il étudie comment les dispositifs numériques de participation sont fabriqués dans le contexte taïwanais, au croisement des influences occidentales et de l'influence de son voisin chinois, et engagé dans un processus de profond renouvellement politique depuis l'occupation du Parlement par des étudiants lors du mouvement des Tournesols de 2014. L'article enquête sur les raisons d'une rencontre originale entre savoir-faire technique, réflexion théorique et volonté politique.

In China, the present modalities of academic research and publication differ considerably from those of European and North American universities. This is particularly true within the field of political science, a discipline that has long languished due to the fact that it is entirely limited to the study of the canonical texts of Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Mao Zedong. The launching of the policy of reform and openness thirty years ago represented a turning point for the humanities and social sciences, which suddenly found themselves holding a place of honor in support of the reformist drive. An initial overview of the situation allows one to better grasp the contours of academic liberty and understand the status presently accorded to Chinese scholars and academics. Some engaged academics (particularly in the area of political reform) are torn between limitations on the liberty of research and publication, official requests to participate in the policy-making process, professionalization, growing market openness and internationalization, patriotism and intellectual commitment. Adapted from the source document.

This article traces the evolution of representative claim-making by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 up to the present day. Based on the analysis of official political discourses on the mass line, the Three Represents and more recent ongoing discourses on digitalization, we demonstrate the change and continuity of claim-making by the CCP. We show that while representative claim-making has undergone a significant transformation from the CCP as the representative of the working class to the sole representative of the Chinese people and nation, the CCP has been consistent throughout decades in maintaining its hegemony over representative claim-making.

This article traces the evolution of representative claim-making by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 up to the present day. Based on the analysis of official political discourses on the mass line, the Three Represents and more recent ongoing discourses on digitalization, we demonstrate the change and continuity of claim-making by the CCP. We show that while representative claim-making has undergone a significant transformation from the CCP as the representative of the working class to the sole representative of the Chinese people and nation, the CCP has been consistent throughout decades in maintaining its hegemony over representative claim-making.

A strong contention of the "representative turn" is that representation is consubstantial with politics (Saward, 2010). One way to test the heuristic value of this vision is to look for representation in an institution that was historically built against representation, namely participatory budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation that has spread globally with exceptional rapidity. The literature on PB identifies two types of relationships between participation and representation: (i) participation "challenges" (Houtzager & Gurza Lavalle, 2009) existing forms and principles of representation (through "assumed representation" by civil society activists; or through "citizen agents"; Montambeault, 2016); or (ii) participation is "instrumentalised" (Fischer, 2012) by classic forms and actors of representation. On the basis of a comparative analysis of PB experiences in Chengdu (China) and Delhi (India), we argue in this article that a third type of relationship can be observed: participation—as implemented through PB—can also redistribute representation insofar as new, official representative roles are created. Moreover, looking at these new roles provides important clues about the principles of representation that are implemented and therefore about the transformative nature of PB.

A strong contention of the "representative turn" is that representation is consubstantial with politics (Saward, 2010). One way to test the heuristic value of this vision is to look for representation in an institution that was historically built against representation, namely participatory budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation that has spread globally with exceptional rapidity. The literature on PB identifies two types of relationships between participation and representation: (i) participation "challenges" (Houtzager & Gurza Lavalle, 2009) existing forms and principles of representation (through "assumed representation" by civil society activists; or through "citizen agents"; Montambeault, 2016); or (ii) participation is "instrumentalised" (Fischer, 2012) by classic forms and actors of representation. On the basis of a comparative analysis of PB experiences in Chengdu (China) and Delhi (India), we argue in this article that a third type of relationship can be observed: participation—as implemented through PB—can also redistribute representation insofar as new, official representative roles are created. Moreover, looking at these new roles provides important clues about the principles of representation that are implemented and therefore about the transformative nature of PB.