29 April 2009

Lettera da Lhasa numero 102. (Vaclavik 2008): Essentials of Food Science

Lettera da Lhasa numero 102. (Vaclavik 2008): Essentials of Food Science

by Roberto Scaruffi


Vaclavik, V., and E. W. Christian, Essentials of Food Science, Springer, New York, NY, USA, 2008.

(Vaclavik 2008).

Vickie Vaclavik,

Elizabeth W. Christian  



(Vaclavik 2008) is a multidisciplinary manual for students and professionals of that sector. It is certainly useful and accessible to whoever interested in that field.



Vaclavik, V., and E. W. Christian, Essentials of Food Science, Springer, New York, NY, USA, 2008.

27 April 2009

Lettera da Lhasa numero 101. (Bernstein 2008): Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China

Lettera da Lhasa numero 101. (Bernstein 2008): Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China

by Roberto Scaruffi


Bernstein, T. P., Xiaobo Lü, Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China, Cambridge University Press, 2008 (first published 2003).

(Bernstein 2008).

Thomas P. Bernstein,

Xiaobo Lü 



Transition is an abused category when unwilling or unable to define whatever entity. A State in Transition is a first approximation used in (Bernstein 2008) about China. The magmatic reality of this State formation, as other questions specifically analysed, should be seen in a context of “China's continuing efforts to reconstruct its state”, according (Bernstein 2008). These efforts are certainly long lasting, excessively long lasting for not arising other theoretical and historical problems. In fact, after the collapsing of an already submitted empire, only with 1949 at least an appearance of Chinese [“mainland China”] unity and independence under a unique central government will be seen. 60 years are a long time for reconstructing a State structure.


However, after that the “Western powers” gave China to Mao and to the Soviet Union area, China did not follow the Soviet Union development model. Soviet Union was transformed, from 1917 until its collapse, in a war economy with undoubtful development and developmental results, although without the solidity and stability of the Anglophone area. 70 years of war economy, without the complement of a consumerist economy, were evidently not further sustainable. China became an immense concentration camp, but without any real development. The great leap forward (1958-1961) was a generalised failure. The soviet accelerate industrialization was not a failure, despite its oddnesses. The reaction of the same Maoist CCP to that Maoist failure produced the long Maoist coup d'etat, with de facto wide western support, called Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). It kept China underdeveloped for another decade. Only with 1978, with the opening of the reform phase, there will be, in the Chinese leadership, a real growing concern for some modern development without which China was running towards some form of rapid implosion. The military needed resources it was impossible to get under traditional Maoist governments. Its role during the Cultural Revolution was not an answer to its growing backwardness.


Arduous to understand the definition, in (Bernstein 2008), of China, although using the past tense, anyway around the beginning of the reform phase, perhaps even now, as “an intermediate State with both predatory and developmental elements.” (Bernstein 2008, p. 6). We want to avoid arguing about the conclusions of the book. Political “scientist” are always full of rhetoric. They frequently propose an imaginary democracy they do not have in their own countries as panacea, or de facto as destabilising suggestions, for other countries. Generally, it is never that the problem. “Democracy”, useful at certain levels, is never the solution for development problems and its bottlenecks as well as for State structures inadequacies. At an ethical level, there is not even any connection between “democracy” and freedoms or rights etc. On the contrary, democracy, people's democracy, is often a very effective obstruction to a culture and practice of rights.


Predatory elements are present in whatever bureaucracy, so inevitably in elephantine bureaucracies as the Chinese ones. The PRC is a real people's democracy, consequently a real maniacs', bureaucratic and ineffective democracy where people self manage their own exploitation, oppression and unhappiness. However, contrarily to predatory States, the Chinese leadership exploits its subjects without destroying the base of its exploitation as it happens in predatory models. Predatory elements, present everywhere in the world (see the US military), may not be assumed in the definition of the Chinese State. They do not prevail over attempts to perpetuate the Chinese State.


It would be even more arduous to assume developmental elements, in China. Development is different from developmentalism. Developmentalism implies the presence, in charge, of a developmentalist oligarchy, what is absent in the PRC. Developmentalism implies a penetrative State structure. The whole (Bernstein 2008) is a description and analysis of the chaotic conditions of the Chinese fiscal system (key element in penetrative States) and of the absence of central and local bureaucracies able to govern not only by frequently empty claims and propaganda, alias by laws-manifesto of improbable implementation.



Bernstein, T. P., Xiaobo Lü, Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China, Cambridge University Press, 2008 (first published 2003).