Oliver, your point about revolution coming from the intellectual/elite is well taken. It could be said that both Charles 1 and Louis XVI parted company with their heads ultimately because of Locke, Hobbes, Voltaire, Rousseau and the host of intellectuals and philosophers of the period.

In China the Cultural Revolution still resounds in many institutions and there is a dearth of intellectualism which the current "One-Child" Policy continues to entrench. The only comparison with 17th Century England or 18th Century France in which revolutionary fervour brought about the birth of democracy would be the emergence of the middle class. And with their sights set so firmly of wealth acquisition, the burgeoning middle classes are, in general, not political.

Already the emergence of the middle class is beginning the same pattern historically observed in other countries: the rural, or "peasant" class are turning the urban drift to a stampede. I would consider it unlikely that any impetus for change therefore would come from this sector.

So with no intellectual underpinning; no push from the majority who are too busy with capitalism; and the dissatisfaction of the rural classes manifesting itself in a push to the cities for themselves or for the education of their children; I can't see any valid reason at the moment for China to do anything to change the status quo, either.

Johnj,

Thanks. Reworking Hofstede is a difficult task. It is expensive research, and generally the professional recruiters hired by universities don’t like working with the appropriate front-end qualifiers: The recruiters have to find an eligible candidate using generational ethnicity screening in preselection. There is some work on societal axioms moving through the academic system.

Romany,

Yep, we are agreed.

Correction:

As you may have discovered Hofstede's work hit the public domain in 1990. - My error. Oliver.

Should be 1980. Was thinking of S. Gordon Redding [1990].

Oliver, you said there was some work on societal axioms currently on-going. Is there anything available on the public domain - or at least in data bases open to the public? I would be very interested. Not my field, but I am a firm believer in cross-discipline research.