Social:Controlocracy

Controlocracy is a modern term first used by the Norwegian sociologist and political scientist Stein Ringen in his book - The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century (2016). Ringen uses his newly created term in an attempt to more accurately describe the current regime of the China (PRC) under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping and argues that this way of governance has been reshaped into a new regime that is radically stricter and more ideological than ever before.

Ringen speaks of the People's Republic of China as a sophisticated dictatorship in which citizens are granted many freedoms, but freedom has its strictly defined limits, beyond which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intervenes with whatever force the Party deems appropriate. The Party is always present and everyone is aware of it. It does not try to dictate to everyone exactly what they can do, on the contrary it controls very strictly what is not allowed. Ringen points to the long-term advantage of this approach over the simple use of brute force. However, he reminds us that the threat of punishment for crossing this indeterminate boundary of freedom is always present.