This research aims to examine the role of Chinese intellectuals in policymaking through the case of Labor Contract Law. Chinese intellectuals have played an important role in shaping of the post-Mao China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership have always benefited from their expertise in formulation and development of the reform policies. Also, the fact that the CCP still need intellectuals&rsquo / support for ideological justification for its policies contributes to importance of intellectuals. In addition, intellectuals have affected the policy agenda-setting of the CCP leadership through their effects on the Chinese public opinion which has increasingly become influential since the 1990s. Furthermore, intellectual debates could function as a substitute for party politics in China&rsquo / s one-party system. These all jointly enhance the role of intellectuals in Chinese politics and make it a crucial subject to study. The case of this research, namely the Labor Contract Law, is selected not only for it received a high level of public attention, but also for it is closely related with one of the central matters of contemporary Chinese politics, i.e. economic development path and social justice.
This inquiry into the making of the Labor Contract Law lead the author to emphasize that tension and animosity between liberal intellectuals and the authoritarian state, on which the existing literature largely focuses, is just one aspect of the intellectual politics in China. In the context of re-configuration of power and wealth due to the marketization, intellectuals&rsquo / position in the society has dramatically changed and patterns of the Party-intellectual relation have diversified. Thus, it is argued in this research that by taking into account the emergent market with its ideological effects and as an institutional force that is linked to intellectuals through ties with the new economic elite inside or outside the Party, parameters of intellectuals politics in China can be more accurately understood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615714/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 February 2013 |
| Creators | Tekdal, Veysel |
| Contributors | Ergenc, Ceren |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | Access forbidden for 1 year |
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