ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a second level of critical uncertainties within the political domain, based primarily on a review of the debate among China experts about uncertainties. Despite the seeming durability of China's authoritarianism, a great deal of expert attention has been devoted to assessing the potential for it to adopt a Western-style democracy much more attention perhaps than would seem justified by the all-too-apparent current obstacles. Contradictory findings probably contributed to a tendency for other experts to focus on a possible alternative outcome to the triumph of either Western-style democracy or a robust authoritarianism: namely, the possibility of increasing liberalisation within the authoritarian system. The second and related issue was whether incremental liberalisation might lead in the long term to the eventual emergence of democracy, and whether would be Chinese-style or Western-style democracy. As Andrew Nathan clarified, however, Yu's concept of democracy was much more consistent with the CCP's view than with a minimal Western definition.
