The mutual transformation of paternalism and nationalism in Chinese state legitimation discourse

This paper addresses the question of the mutual transformation of the concept of nationalism and institutionalized Chinese conceptions of good governance, as the Chinese state, in the interest of its legitimation from the late imperial period to the present, has constructed moral-political education discourse. Rules of governance are treated as the logic of “paternalism,” encompassing dimensions of fidelity to orthodoxy, moral exemplariness, concern for people’s spiritual and material livelihood, attentiveness to people’s views, and encouragement of responsibilities. The institutional logic of the “nation-state” is conceptualized as encompassing boundedness, identity, collective goal achievement, economy, progress, law, popular sovereignty, rights, and obligations. The paper draws upon text from state-promulgated moral-political education policy directives, carrying out a detailed discourse analysis of the integration of prescribed knowledge of “paternalism” and the “nation-state” to elicit the specific changes that have taken place in each dimension by virtue of its positioning with other dimensions. Copyright © 2019 Hong Kong Sociological Association 21st Annual Conference.