Ideological Conflict and the Rule of Law in Contemporary China

Foreword William P. Alford; Preface and acknowledgments; 1. Introduction: 1.1 A change of perspective; 1.2 A return to ideology; 1.3 Limitations, academic positioning and apologies; 1.4 Structure of the book; 2. Setting the stage: 2.1. Three generations of Chinese legal scholars; 2.2 Historically significant scholarship; 2.3 Conservative socialist reforms; 2.4 The mainstream state of mind; 2.5 Liberal sensibilities; 2.6 The avant-garde point of view; 2.7 New orthodoxies and heterodoxies; 2.8 Conclusion: resisting and affirming the ideological positions; 3. Ideological cynicism meets theoretical skepticism: 3.1 Some realism about ideological realism; 3.2 The life and thought of Luo Gan; 3.3 Luo Gan's speeches through the kaleidoscope of social theory; 3.4 A theoretical smorgasbord; 3.5. Conclusion: knowing how not to know; 4. Useful paradoxes: the conservative socialist ideological position: 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Between the romanticism of illegality and the romanticism of legality; 4.3 Useful paradoxes; 4.4 Neoconservative reconfigurations; 4.5 Conclusion: paradoxes as entry points for local knowledge; 5. Thick mainstream, thin liberalism and vice versa: 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 All things considered; 5.3 Wang Liming and mainstream strategies; 5.4 Prescriptions of paternalism and autonomy; 5.5 Li Buyun and the ever-thickening rule of law conception; 5.6 Liberalism for an authoritarian state; 5.7 Conclusion: merging the narratives; 6. Avant-garde renewal and nostalgia: 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Critical avant-garde scholarship; 6.3 New Confucian hybrids; 6.4 Communitarian rule of law; 6.5 The paradoxes of ideological renewal; 6.6 Jiang Shigong and the irrationalist turn; 6.7 Conclusion: a cycle of hope and disillusionment; 7. Conclusions; 7.1 'But nothing falls'?; 7.2 Argumentative strategies; 7.3 Leaps of faith; 7.4 Ideological positions at play: explicating the rural land rights debate; 7.5 Orientalist exotica; Textbook answers to the questions in chapters 1–6; Bibliography; Index.