{"id":871,"date":"2010-06-30T03:00:12","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=871"},"modified":"2010-07-07T14:51:20","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T18:51:20","slug":"multiple-solutions-implications-for-social-and-political-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2010\/06\/multiple-solutions-implications-for-social-and-political-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Solutions: Implications for Social and Political Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"
From our high school and college education in math and physics, as well as in other science courses, we know that for many problems, there could be multiple solutions, and often one solution is not necessarily better than the other solutions.\u00a0 This article discusses the implications for social and political analysis when we take into account that there could be multiple solutions to any particular social or political problem.
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To illustrate the concept of multiple solutions to problems, let\u2019s consider a simple arithmetic problem. Suppose the problem is to calculate (19×6), then one solution is to just multiply 19 by 6 and get the result 114.\u00a0 Another solution is to multiply 20 by 6 to get 120, and then subtract 6 from 120 to get the same answer 114.\u00a0 Although the second solution involves two steps, instead of one step as in the first solution, because it is much easier to multiply 20 by 6 as compared to multiplying 19 by 6, the second solution is just as easy, and just as good, as the first solution.
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\nWhat about social and political problems?\u00a0 It seems natural to assume that for many social and political problems, there could also be multiple solutions.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, social and political problems may be even more complex than math and science problems, because there may be more variables, many of the variables may not even be known, and they may involve human behaviors that are not always predictable.\u00a0 Because the problems are so complex and not necessarily well defined or completely defined, for any particular problem or a set of problems, there could be even more solutions or perhaps partial solutions, and it may be difficult to judge in real time whether one solution is better than another solution.
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\nIn this article, we want to discuss the above concept in the transformation of a semi-feudal, poor, mostly under-developed country to a modern, industrialized, and fully-developed country, in particular the transformation of China from the middle of the 20th century to the middle of the 21st century.\u00a0 During this transformation, China has or will have to address many issues, such as transforming:<\/p>\n
The above list is definitely by no means complete. There are many more problems that China needs to address during this transformation. Nevertheless, the above list already shows the huge problems and the complexity of the problems that China must solve during this transformation. I am in no illusion that I can offer a lot of insights in solving these problems, although future articles in my website may provide additional discussion on some selected problems.
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\nAs we said at the very beginning of this article, there could be multiple solutions to a particular problem, and one solution is not necessarily better than other solutions. When we take into account that China, as well as other countries, may have its own unique history, culture, and circumstances , then it is very likely that the best solutions to their problems may not be the same as the solutions being used in other countries. Just because certain solutions are being adopted in certain countries, it does not necessarily mean that those solutions are the best solutions for China, or even if they are workable solutions for China. Furthermore, the solutions being adopted in other countries may not even be the best solutions for those countries.
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\nNote that the first three issues in the above list are \u201clife and death\u201d problems. Although Issue #3 on illiteracy is not necessarily a life and death problem for any particular individual, it is a life and death problem for a country as a whole. A country must first solve these life and death problems before it can seriously try to solve the other problems. Countries like the U.S. do not have to face these problems during the period between the middle of the 20th century and the middle of the 21st century. For example, in 1950, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was already over 60 years [5], and the illiteracy rate in the U.S. was only 3.2% [6].
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\nAt the beginning of this article we illustrated with a simple math problem how there might be different ways of solving a particular problem. In that example, the final answer was still the same even though the method of arriving at that answer may be different. We also know from solving math (e.g., solving differential equations) and science problems that different initial conditions may lead to different answers. Therefore, not only that the method of arriving at an answer could be different, but the answer itself could be different!\u00a0 This is a fact in solving math and science problems. Could it be any different in solving social and political problems. Shouldn\u2019t we then expect that there could be multiple methods of solving social and political problems, and when there are different initial conditions, the final answers could also be different.
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\nIf we keep the above perspective in mind, then one should be careful in quickly passing judgment on others, just because they don\u2019t always do things in the same way. This is important in assessing China\u2019s economic, social, and political policies, especially in the current environment where the U.S. government and western mass media are fairly critical and antagonistic toward China, thus making an objective and unbiased assessment difficult. There are many reasons for such an attitude, but one of them is trying to find a scapegoat for the current depressed economic conditions in the U.S. Instead of trying to find and attack the root causes of our problems (e.g., overspending our resources for an extended period), it is much easier and politically safer to find an external scapegoat. Not only that this will not solve our problems, it will make the world a more dangerous place to live in. For the sake of the future of our children and grandchildren, this is something we should work hard to avoid.<\/p>\n
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[1]\u00a0 http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Demographics_of_the_People’s_Republic_of_China#Fertility_and_mortality
\n[2]\u00a0 http:\/\/www.asianinfo.org\/asianinfo\/china\/pro-education.htm
\n[3]\u00a0 http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
\n[4]\u00a0 http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Transport_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
\n[5]\u00a0 http:\/\/www.data360.org\/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=195
\n[6]\u00a0 http:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/naal\/lit_history.asp<\/p>\n
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From our high school and college education in math and physics, as well as in other science courses, we know that for many problems, there could be multiple solutions, and often one solution is not necessarily better than the other solutions.\u00a0 This article discusses the implications for social and political analysis when we take into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1225,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/1225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}