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Universal suffrage in Hong Kong
OpinionComment
Regina Ip
Regina Ip

Opinion | Hong Kong must wake up from its blind faith in ‘one man, one vote’ democracy

  • In its search for the best governance model, China has come to prize social stability as a prerequisite for the good life
  • Meanwhile, Hong Kong should open its eyes to evidence that democratic elections elsewhere have not delivered the good governance people crave

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People walk past a banner showing the way to a polling station on December 19 last year, during Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election. Photo: Felix Wong
Regina Ip

For thousands of years, political philosophers have searched for a model of government best suited for their societies. In Plato’s republic, philosopher-kings are preferred. In the Politics, Aristotle’s treatise on governance, he identifies six forms of government – kingship, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, polity, and democracy. A mixed regime is preferred because none of the six is perfect.

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In Aristotle’s political world, political distinctions are determined by social classes. Oligarchy is rule by the rich, while democracy is rule by the poor.

Polity is rule by the middle class. Aristotle says in Politics that, “In the case of political community … the one that is based on those in the middle is best, and … cities capable of being well governed are those sorts where the middle is large”.

Visitors pose for photographs with festive decorations for Lunar New Year in Shanghai on February 2. President Xi Jinping’s concept of “common prosperity” hinges on building a sizeable middle class. Photo: Bloomberg
Visitors pose for photographs with festive decorations for Lunar New Year in Shanghai on February 2. President Xi Jinping’s concept of “common prosperity” hinges on building a sizeable middle class. Photo: Bloomberg
It is not clear whether President Xi Jinping has studied Aristotle. But last August, in explaining the concept of “common prosperity”, Xi said that “common prosperity”, as a social objective, hinges on building an olive-shaped society with a sizeable middle class.

Xi’s thought is in line with China’s age-old philosophy that the aim of any political system is to provide the people with a good life. The prerequisite for delivering good governance is stability. Leaders can only go about improving people’s livelihoods and bring about a flowering of their talents where there is stability.

While China struggles, dynasty after dynasty, to feed its teeming population, fight off invading “barbarians” and maintain stability, Western democracies have put protecting personal freedoms and individual rights front and centre of their political system. Liberty is the buzzword and “government by the people” the siren song that has mesmerised millions.

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At this juncture, however, we see troubling signs of liberal democracy unravelling. In 2016, the US elected a president who later insisted his successor stole the election, flying in the face of the much-lauded democratic principle of a peaceful transfer of power.
His successor, Joe Biden, won over 80 million votes, the highest in US history in a record-breaking voter turnout. One year on, President Biden’s poll numbers are hovering in the low 40s, the second-lowest public approval rating for any US president after one year in office, according to Gallup.
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