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Brang, Lucas (2020). The Dilemmas of Self-Assertion: Chinese Political Constitutionalism in a Globalized World. Modern China, 48 (3). SAGE Publications Inc.. ISSN 0097-7004

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Abstract

Political constitutionalism emerged on the Chinese academic scene in the mid-2000s as a countermovement to the rights-based, court-centred and textual mainstream in Chinese constitutional scholarship. On the surface, it has launched a biting and sophisticated critique of academic and institutional ‘Westernization’ and reasserted a sense of Chinese constitutional particularity. However, contrary to its intellectual self-representation as a genuinely Chinese phenomenon, this paper argues that the movement’s academic formation, methodological agenda, and theoretical vocabulary are inseparable from global ideological trends and draw heavily on European and American precedents. Consequently, the movement is troubled by a set of performative contradictions. These include the contradiction between its transnational genealogy and nationalist agenda; its pluralist theoretical make-up and anti-pluralist political rhetoric; as well as its putatively value-neutral sociological methodology and the politically selective application of said methodology. These antinomies, I argue, speak to the recurring dilemmas of ‘national’ self-assertion in a globalized world.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Brang, Lucas lbrang@smail.uni-koeln.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-112694
DOI:	10.1177/0097700421994738
Journal or Publication Title:	Modern China
Volume:	48
Number:	3
Date:	2020
Publisher:	SAGE Publications Inc.
ISSN:	0097-7004
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 4: Außereuropäische Sprachen, Kulturen und Gesellschaften > Ostasiatisches Seminar
Subjects:	Political science Law
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Chinese constitutional theory UNSPECIFIED global constitutionalism UNSPECIFIED theoretical sources of Chinese neo-conservatism UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 713600.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/11269