Yang Changyu Role of cultural factors in the Chinese strategy of Rule with the Supremacy of Law

Abstract: In the ancient China political philosophy and culture, and the Confucian ethics as its nucleus were equally decisive in the practice of state administration. In modern China development of the strategy of “state administration with the supremacy of law” is also based upon the fundamentals of the Chinese culture. The traditional cultural gene still shows itself in the state administration model. In spite of the fact that China has undertaken deep social transformation in the process of its transition from the traditional society to a modern one, formation and development of the strategy of “administration with the supremacy of law” is still (albeit to a different degree) preconditioned by two fundamental factors: the autocratic traditional political culture and ethics. At the same time, the Chinese culture, having gained a number of specific traits during the thousands of years of its history, is internally ambivalent. It has both positive potential and the archaic elements, obviously contradicting the modernity. It is necessary to employ the rational elements of the traditional Chinese culture and to part with those, which limit the modern development by the burden of the distant past, in order to bring the strategy of “state administration with the supremacy of law” to a totally novel level.

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