TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Writer and the Scholar: Democracy After the Shift Toward East Asia
AU  - GAUDIN, Christophe 
JO  - Acta Via Serica
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/6/16
DO  - 10.22679/avs.2024.9.2.005
KW  - Wittfogel
KW  - communism
KW  - capitalism
KW  - democracy
KW  - Confucianism
KW  - Milk Tea Alliance
AB  - This paper aims 1) to elucidate the distinctive contributions of two authors towards understanding how East Asian countries have assimilated Western-born capitalism; 2) and to draw practical consequences for the time we live in. Jack London anticipated in a short story a future world where China plays a pivotal role. Conversely, Karl Wittfogel offered a longitudinal analysis of how early hydraulic systems in Asia provided state bureaucracies with formidable means to control their populations over centuries. The objective is to juxtapose the perspectives of these two authors and question the practical implications arising from their insights, as the global economic fulcrum shifts Eastward, focusing on what it entails for the future of democracy.