The other significant step which is equally decisive for the institutionalization of
professional autonomy, and especially for the promotion of political study
scholarship, concerns “internal institutional building,” by which I mean the norms,
principles, and procedures that govern qualifications and assessments of human
resources, research projects, scholarly publications, and educational offers in the
study of Chinese politics. A perhaps superficial issue in this regard is about the
format and professionalism of research articles: in China there are still numerous
articles published in leading political science journals like Zhengzhixue that
lack any format for academic reference—in other words, no any footnotes.
A scholar would not argue that this is a purely trivial problem, because
reference notes not only indicate the source of information and make arguments with
evidence, but they also ensure the continuation of intellectual development which
allows for the accumulation and progress of knowledge. A more significant issue
concerns the assessment and evaluation of scholarship: It is not the government or
the ruling political party that has the authority to assess and evaluate the quality of
scholarship. This is easy to understand in a system with academic autonomy and
freedom, but it is definitely not natural in contemporary China. In a similar vein,
financial sponsors are also unable to do such assessment
and evaluation.
To establish the peer-review system in China is not some form of
“Westernization;” it is rather an urgent step of “localization” and professionalization
of scholarship.
There are many other tasks that should be performed in order to establish the
institutional infrastructures inevitable for the development of scientific research.
Academic journals are among these, and the publication of book reviews by
academic journals must also be accounted for. In this aspect, those norms and
procedures practiced in the English-language academic world have their problems,
but they are definitely better than the practice without consistent academic norms
and procedures as that is observed in today’s China.
科学的研究の発展のために不可欠な制度的下部組織構造を構築するために成されなければならない多くの他の仕事がある。
学問的ジャーナルはそのうちの一つであり、学問的ジャーナルによる書評も示されなければならない。この点に関して、英語圏の学問世界にて実施されている規則や手続きは問題を抱えているが、今日中国で見られるような一貫した学問的規則や手続きのない実施に比べればはるかに良い。
All of these are common for any discipline of natural sciences, humanities and
social sciences in industrialized nations, which follow similar academic norms and
ethics. In the Chinese context, however, it seems much easier for natural sciences to do
that, as nobody disputes against those norms and further, research agenda and research
issues calling for indigenization of physics, chemistry, or biology, even though one
may argue that Chinese people are biologically with Chinese characteristics. Even in
humanities, one rarely hears something like “anti-Westernization” of Chinese historical research. The uniqueness of political
studies in today’s China, is the very weak presence of
the study of domestic Chinese politics.
If localization is necessary for Chinese
political science, isn’t it the most urgent task to focus on Chinese politics, 'local'
politics of China in comparison with foreign and global ones?
Being autonomous and independent, does not signify the exclusion of
external influences. To develop the study of Chinese politics, the students of this
field can learn from sister fields, such as Chinese foreign policy studies in China. In fact, the studies of political sociology and modern Chinese history are able to offer good
examples to the study of Chinese politics. In a similar vein, the resistance to learning
from Western/American studies of Chinese politics will not help improve the
Chinese study of Chinese politics either.
との比較のうえでの’現地の’中国の政治に焦点をあてることが最優先の課題ではないか?
自立し独立していることは、外からの影響を排除することを意味してはいない。
中国の政治の研究を発達させるためには、この分野の学生が姉妹分野、例えば中国での
中国の外交政策の研究などから学ぶことができる。実際、政治社会学や現代中国史の
研究は中国の政治の研究によい例を与えてくれる。同じように、西欧の中国政治の
研究から学ぶことへの抵抗は中国の中国政治の研究を改善する助けとはならないだろう。
Indigenization should not mean antiforeignism;
rather, there are 3 excellent examples demonstrating how foreign
influence enriches political studies in U.S or enlightening how China
may learn from international experience in terms of contributing to political science.
The 1st example is the American response to Tocqueville’s study of American
democracy, which is regarded by the highly indigenized academics on American
politics as an indispensible classic . Another example is the study of peasants:
2 leading American scholars in the regard, have
respectively investigated peasant politics of Southeast Asia, and have made great contributions to comparative politics
through their contending theories, “the moral economy”
As a nation with a long history and the dynamic politics of peasants,
will China contribute some more in this regard? A 3rd example comes from the
study of Latin American politics, which has contributed much to the international
scholarship of comparative political studies, with the theories such as “bureaucratic
authoritarianism” and “dependent development.” Many important findings of these
were achieved and published by Latin American scholars who lived in their home
countries, but they were quickly accepted worldwide. These works were translated
into English and have been widely read in U.S. classrooms of political science. Are
they achievements of anti-Western indigenization of the study of Latin American
politics?