International Lecture on China’s political system

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera Sunday edition proposes an interview to the Canadian political scientist Daniel A. Bell (Tsinghua University, Beijing).
In his last work "The China Model" Bell compares the Chinese system, based on co-option, to the Western democracy, based on the principle "one man one vote". Co-option consists of a recruiting method of government members, who match specific skills and political abilities.

Bell is nor assuming that Western democracy should and could turn into the "China model" neither that China is the ideal incarnation of such a model, indeed. He rather believes that "one man one vote" is not the only possible democratic principle to endorse and that, in times of China political rise and Western democracy fragility, such a comparison could turn out fruitful.

He actually proposes three ways of making democracy coexisting with meritocracy: by a weighed election (votes calculation can variate depending on the candidate political merit), by distinguishing, at institutional level, a meritocratic chamber and a democratic one or, otherwise, by separating a meritocratic government centrally and a democratic one locally.