Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century

Nicolas Berggruen, an investor and philanthropist, and editor Nathan Gardels argue that Western democracies have become stuck in populism and short-term thinking, while China needs to give its meritocratic but authoritarian system the popular legitimacy of Western states. They contrast America's consumer democracy, burdened by debt and partisanship, with China's modern mandarinate, and weigh meritocracy against electoral democracy, including affinities between Enlightenment thinkers and Confucian ideas. Further chapters take on social networks, megacities and the scattering of production, and propose an institutional design for a middle way. The authors also describe the Berggruen Institute on Governance's work in California, with the G-20 and in Europe, and sum up their advice as China lightening up while the US tightens up.

Rupert Murdoch said he was enjoying it, finding it heavy going but sweeping in its views, if too optimistic.