Roundtable: Radical Democracy in Chinese Thought

Date: September 5, 2025

Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Location: Room 208N, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, 1 Devonshire Place, North Building

Sponsored by:

Asian Institute

Department of Political Science

Department of East Asian Studies

Abstract: Contemporary political theory is marked by ever-increasing engagement with the history of Chinese political thought, much of which centers on debates over political meritocracy versus democracy as models of good political order, on the compatibility of Confucianism with democracy, and on the possible futures of deliberative democracy in China. But 20th-century Chinese thought also offers abundant resources for radical democratic imaginaries rooted in anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, and transnational feminism “with Chinese characteristics.” This roundtable features two new scholars whose doctoral research at the University of Toronto has reconstructed the democratic thought of two key figures in 20th-century Chinese thought, He-Yin Zhen and Mao Zedong, together with renowned senior scholars of modern Chinese thought and democratic theory.

Panelists:

Stephen C. Angle is Professor of Philosophy and East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. Angle’s recent works include Progressive Confucianism and Its Critics: Dialogues from the Confucian Heartland (co-edited with Yutang Jin, 2025) and Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life (2022).

Peter Zarrow is Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on modern Chinese thought and culture. His recent publications include Abolishing Boundaries: Global Utopias in the Formation of Modern Chinese Political Thought, 1880-1940 (2021) and a translation of essays by Liang Qichao, Thoughts from the Ice-Drinker’s Studio: Essays on China and the World (2023); he is currently writing on the process of the museumification of the Forbidden City since 1900.

Mark E. Warren is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. His publications include, most recently, “Democratic Innovation and Representative Democracy,” Perspectives on Politics (2025), and he is co-author, with Baogang He, of “Authoritarian Deliberation in China,” Perspectives on Politics (2011) and several further articles on deliberation and meritocracy in contemporary China.

Devin Ouellette is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His work focuses on anarchist thought in early 20th-century China, and his dissertation is titled “Seeking Justice in Gender Revolution: He-Yin Zhen’s Contributions to Late Qing Political Thought.”

Alissa Wang is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science, whose research focuses on democratic theory and Chinese politics. Her dissertation is titled “Mao’s Mass Line and the Paradox of Democracy.”