In July 2015, the project, “A Comparative Study on Ways for Political Development in Non-western Countries” was applied by the team which regards Professor Tan Rong of Nankai University as the chief expert, won the bidding in the major projects of the National Social Science Fund (the first batch) in 2015.

Based on the “Non-western center Theory”, this project will discuss the ways for political development of non-western countries. Five sub-projects were parted: (1) The theory and comparative study of ways for political development in non-western countries (in charged by Professor Tan Rong of Nankai University); (2) The study of political development roads in Southeast Asian countries (leaded by Professor Chang Shiyin of Tianjin Normal University); (3)The study of ways for political development in South Asian countries mainly in India (responsible by Associate Professor Chen Jinying of Shanghai International Studies University); (4) The study of ways for political development in Middle East countries (headed by Professor Han Zhibin of Northwest University); (5) The study of political development roads in Latin American countries（commanded by Researcher Yuan Dongzhen of Institute of Latin American Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Science）

The project intends to work on subjects which include the following sections:

1. The theoretical exploration. Teasing out and analyzing of the existing theories about political developments of non-western countries in academia, basis of comments and judgments on such theories, then some theoretical viewpoints will be proposed.

2. The discussion of several problems about ways for political developments in non-western countries, including: (1) the relations between the roads to modernization and the ways for political development in non-western countries; (2) the issues about social integration in process of modernization in non-western countries; (3) the influences for political development ways from the history and culture of non-western countries; (4) the political structure actuality and political developments in non-western countries; (5) the statuses and functions of armies in the progress of political developments in non-western countries; (6) the relations of nation and society in process of political development in non-western countries.

3. The research refers to two theoretical issues. The first one relates to “westernization”. Majority of non-western countries have experienced or are experiencing some sort of “westernization”, while, undergoing “westernization” does not mean that the non-western countries have westernized, would be westernization inevitability or go through the same political development way with western countries. The functional structure characteristics and realities of political structures in non-western countries illustrate that the institutional structure appearances are not equal to the road to “westernization”. The second one is about authoritarian politics. Most of non-western countries have gone through or are going through the process of authoritarian politics. In order to explain the reason why most of non-western countries have experienced or are experiencing the process from theory and reality two terms on account of political, economic, social, cultural factors, the connotation and types of authoritarian politics should be defined.

The research approaches and methods of this project : (1) Combining with research methods in politics and history, as well, comprehensive application of research approaches in economic, social, religionary and international relations, etc. (2) Regional and national research. Analyze political development roads and various problems in different regions and nations, and then summarize the particularities and inherent laws of theirs. (3) Comparative Study. Comparing the political development with different regions and nations, even with western developed countries, to summarize the internal reasons why non-western countries can not follow the way of western countries. (4) Attempt to adopt structure-function method, systems theory and historical institutionalism, etc. (5) On the basic of empirical and comparative study, the project will mainly adopt qualitative research method to extract and purify regular connotations and theoretical perspectives.

Contact E-mail: tanr@nankai.edu.cn