This book argues that most public affairs can be openly discussed before consensus is reached, and people from different backgrounds should be encouraged to get involved in policy-making on an equal basis. This is considered multiple deliberative democracy. The book features in-depth discussions on why multiple deliberative democracy is needed in China, what specific procedures it entails, and how it is conducted in local communities across the country. In addition, it probes into the areas of public administration where multiple deliberative democracy can be employed to enhance informed decision-making on public affairs, such as community self-governance matters, matters to be voted on by the National People's Congress, collecting CPPCC motions, social organization (or corporation) consultation, vital planning schemes of the society, and citizen education. Furthermore, the monograph explores the pluralism in deliberative democracy, such as mass symposium, citizen (villager) BBS, community Internet BBS, discussions in open areas of the community, “vision workshops”, and citizen jury. It is concluded that thorough deliberation among citizens may profoundly impact the government’s informed-decision-making. The book exposes the readers to the democratic system of modern China and sheds lights on its contextualized, unique multiple deliberative democracy procedures and practices. University students, researchers, and practitioner in the fields of political science, public administration, and international relations, among others, may find this book informative and intriguing.
Dr. Fuguo Han, Professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Comparative Research on Urban Governance, Fudan University. From 2015 to 2016, he was Visiting Scholar in the media department and deliberative democracy research center of Stanford University. His research interests mainly are social class mobility, urban governance and innovation, party development and democratic development, as well as deliberative democratic practice.
Translators:
Fumin Tan holds Ph.D., Vice Dean, Full Professor, and Doctoral Adviser in translation studies at Foreign Studies College of Hunan Normal University, China and is Veteran Translator with over 30 years of solid experience in teaching and researching about translation. His other professional roles in the field of translation include Vice Chairman of the Foreign Language Teaching Committee of Hunan Province, Member of Hunan Provincial Translation Association, and Member of Hunan provincial Science and Technology Translation Professionals Association. Professor Tan published more than 10 papers in prestigious scholarly journals such as China Translation, Foreign Language Teaching, and Foreign Language Journal, among others. In addition, he published a monograph entitled “A Study on Guo Moruo’s Translation” and edited/co-edited 16 textbooks.
Dr. Yuehai Xiao is currently Full Professor in applied linguistics at Hunan Normal University after teaching academic English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, for two years. He received his master’s degree in Literacy from University of Cincinnati (USA) and his Ph.D. degree in applied linguistics from New York University, which is ranked the 27th in the world. He has published 10 research articles in some internationally refereed journals and a monograph “Crossing the Seas: A Diary of My Thoughts” in America. The book is available on hundreds of Websites including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, goodreads.com, etc. The book has been highly rated by readers in North America and Europe with dozens of reviews on the Internet.
In addition, Professor Xiao has been serving as Invited Reviewer of a few scholarly journals including TESL-EJ, an internationally refereed journal hosted by University of California, Berkeley, for many years. His name is listed on the official Website of that Berkeley journal along with the name of Harvard professor Dr Virginia Maurer.
Furthermore, after reviewing manuscripts for a Canadian journal “English Linguistics Research” for 4 years, Dr Xiao was promoted to be Editor-in-Chief of that journal.
