In the Chinese case, after the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, Beijing has de-ideologized and has realized the importance of selecting high-quality leaders for future economic development. However, the cycle may begin again because, eventually, capital matters. This plutocracy has worked well in the US After all, if American voters dislike the incumbent administration, they could choose another one. More directly, Wendell Potter, a former communications director at the insurance giant Cigna, clarified that due to the high cost "the health-care system in the United States is built for the elite," either the politically influential or economically wealthy. A pandemic-driven economic calamity has cut over 26 million jobs with unparalleled speed, while the stocks of 500 large market-capitalized American companies have just reached 16 percent off its high.
In the end, in the American plutocracy, what really matters is capital rather than ordinary peoples' lives. David Nussbaum found that poor Americans are usually overoptimistic about their upward social mobility, underpinning my argument. However, regardless of the intention, this consciousness war has successfully "masked the real shift of economic power toward the rich." Michael W. We may never know if it is deliberately triggered, but it seems likely. How could you expect citizens who just finished their tiring, make-a-living day to have the desire and sensibility to vote?Īdditionally, it is most bizarre that some politicians and media have successfully diverted the needy from concentrating on their own economic issues to fixating on more controversial and eye-catching topics such as immigration and abortion. The elections are usually held on a workday, and the polling booths are closed before 8 pm. It is understandable that this phenomenon originates from the stronger civic consciousness of the more educated affluent since, nowadays, access to expensive American education has been increasingly associated with wealth rather than merit.įurthermore, there are some concrete policies that are made to distance the impoverished from voting. However, based on data from the US Census Bureau, Branko Milanović summarized that "the United States is a country with a very skewed participation in elections, where 80 percent of people in the top income decile vote, compared with only 40 percent in the bottom decile." Plutocracy refers to a society that is ruled by the wealthy, which might sound absurd within the context of US public beliefs, such as American self-made, universal suffrage. Neither of them is defined by ideology but can apply to any system, which may substantially influence the quality of the coronavirus response. When we peel off the ideological fog and dig into the governance of the Sino-American systems, all the beautiful slogans, such as the American dream and socialism with Chinese characteristics, gradually flow away, and the selection and structure of the ruling classes may potentially emerge: the American plutocracy versus Chinese meritocracy. So, what is the rationale that has led to this disparity between the American and Chinese response? Using America's case to generalize about the future of democracy worldwide is conspicuously irrational. In fact, other democracies, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, have performed well in the management of the pandemic. In this politically volatile world, it is easy for individuals to attribute ideology to some inexplicable phenomena, resulting in some excessive concerns and unwise conclusions. Some Western media argue that a grim future of liberal democracy lurks if it cannot offer essential public benefits.
Meanwhile, after a troubled and misleading start, Beijing's stringent measures have proven effective and successful. XinhuaĬurrently, the Trump administration's mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak is well-acknowledged and disappointing. Boxes containing face masks donated by China's Fujian Province in Oregon, the United States, April 27, 2020.
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