State and Democracy (was Re: Who Killed Vincent Chin?)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Doug:
>And I was also referring to a very elitist view of the world that
>underpins the strong state - Keynes's well-born technocrats on the
>National Investment Board, or HCKL's friends in the Chinese CP,
>planning on behalf of the masses.

What is, in your opinion, a non-elitist form of planning practicable --
given the existing domestic and international social relations -- in China
now?  And what body is supposed to plan?  How is such a body to be formed?
Or is planning, by virtue of being planning, necessarily undemocratic?
What's a practical form of democracy in a country of China's size, under
the conditions of being surrounded by the capitalist world market and
imperialism to shore it up?  As a thought experiment, imagine that the
Chinese CP stopped "planning on behalf of the masses."  What would be the
result?  More democracy?  If so, why do you think that such an outcome is
likely?  If not, why not?

Yoshie