Rule-of-Law Reform and the Rise of Rule by Fear in China

Pils E (2020)


Publication Type: Authored book

Publication year: 2020

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781108634816

DOI: 10.1017/9781108634816.004

Abstract

The chapter argues that the use of fear techniques as a tool of authoritarian governance is central to the reconception of law on anti-liberal and anti-rationalist terms in China’s Xi Jinping era. The changes discussed here impede attempts to continue the legal reform process that began under Deng Xiaoping. To the extent that rule by fear is inherent to authoritarian governance, developments in China expose tensions within the wider project of authoritarian legality and call its chances of success into question. These developments pose challenges to a global community more widely struggling with democratic-liberal decline and authoritarian resurgence. Yet, the Chinese example also indicates that rule by fear is itself prone to challenges from a thus far resilient civil society.

How to cite

APA:

Pils, E. (2020). Rule-of-Law Reform and the Rise of Rule by Fear in China. Cambridge University Press.

MLA:

Pils, Eva. Rule-of-Law Reform and the Rise of Rule by Fear in China. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

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