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Muhammad Bilal 1

The document discusses whether China has become a new model for emerging economies to follow, as its economic growth and improvements to living standards challenge the traditional American model. It notes that while the U.S. prioritizes political rights, developing countries see economic rights like access to food, shelter, education and healthcare as more important. China's state capitalism and focus on economic growth over democracy is gathering momentum. While democracy was once seen as necessary for growth, countries like China have shown that growth can enable democracy over time. As China's economy grows further, ideological divisions between Western and other approaches may widen, encouraging more state involvement and fewer political freedoms in other nations. The West must decide whether to compete

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Zafar Habib
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42 views2 pages

Muhammad Bilal 1

The document discusses whether China has become a new model for emerging economies to follow, as its economic growth and improvements to living standards challenge the traditional American model. It notes that while the U.S. prioritizes political rights, developing countries see economic rights like access to food, shelter, education and healthcare as more important. China's state capitalism and focus on economic growth over democracy is gathering momentum. While democracy was once seen as necessary for growth, countries like China have shown that growth can enable democracy over time. As China's economy grows further, ideological divisions between Western and other approaches may widen, encouraging more state involvement and fewer political freedoms in other nations. The West must decide whether to compete

Uploaded by

Zafar Habib
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Is China the new idol for emerging economies?

United States of America, as a leader of the western front, has been seen as the most successful model of
growth and development thus far, having spurred industrialization. Their system is a strong promoter of
private capitalism and individual freedom. They prioritize political rights over economic rights.

Today, however, there is a widening schism between developed and developing countries and the
ideological beliefs between political and economic rights. For developing countries, delivering of food,
shelter, education and healthcare is more important than political rights. Liberty, freedom or democracy
are concepts only for the wealthy, rather than those barely struggling to survive.

This is a challenge for the American system, and it is embodied by the growing success of China’s state
capitalism, de-prioritized democratic system, and the prioritizing the economic rights over political
rights. China’s system is gathering momentum in the emerging markets as the system to follow. The
reasons are China’s economic performance over the last 30 years, and its improvement in living
standards, decrease in poverty and decrease income inequality. Both China and America have the same
GINI coefficient but America’s income inequality is worsening while China’s income inequality is
improving.

Democracy is no longer viewed as a prerequisite for economic growth. Taiwan, Singapore, Chile and
China have all shown that actually, economic growth is a prerequisite for democracy. Income is the
greatest determinant of how long a democracy can last in the country. The higher the per capita income,
the longer democracy is shown to last. However, not all democracies are positive. 70% of democracies
are illiberal democracies; they do not allow freedom of speech or freedom of movement, according to a
study by Freedom House. They have also studied that overall freedom has been on the decline for the
last seven years. This shows that there needs to be a more sustainable form of liberal democracy, which
again, needs to come from economic growth.

As China’s economy grows, the schism between the western and the rest of the world’s ideologies is
expected to widen. This could encourage more state capitalism or involvement, increased protectionism
and fewer political and individual rights.

The West can then either compete with the Chinese system, or cooperate. By competing and pushing the
agenda of private capitalism and liberal democracy, the schism will widen further. By choosing to
cooperate, the west would have to give emerging markets more political and economic flexibility. The
West may need to cooperate in the short term in order to compete in the long term. For that, they will
have to focus on economic outcome to first strengthen the middle class so that they will hold the
government accountable, to create a healthy liberal democracy. Encourage businesses to engage and
invest in China rather than criticize it.

In the end, it is about creating prosperity to ensure that they will have better living standards in the
shortest period of time. Both systems have good thing and bad things. We need to be open-minded in
order to find and follow a system that is best suited for improving today’s market to reduce poverty and
increase freedom.

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