NEW ORDERS AND DECORATION OF CHINA AND MONGOLIA
The 21st century is a great challenge for humankind. In many branches of economy, technological developments have rendered human participation practically needless, or at least much less efficient than the automated alternative, and as a result, a lot of humans are becoming increasingly marginalised. Meanwhile developing countries are still facing resource shortages, and this struggle plays in favour of authoritarian trends rather than democratic ones. Authoritarianism now effectively acts as a form of bureaucratic democracy which formally retains the democratic institute of general elections, but in practice gives no way to non-bureaucratic candidates. This democratic authoritarianism is evident in the current developments of award systems. The highest order of Mongolia is the Order of Genghis Khan established in 2002. Chinese People’s Republic established several new orders in the last years; for example, in 2015, the Order of Republic Gònghéguó xūnzhāng , the Order of Friendship Yǒuyì xūnzhāng , and the National Honorary Title Guójiā róngyù chēnghào were established. The National Honorary Title has a special badge as a mark of the award. All these orders have a collar, which brings them closer to traditional European chivalry orders, like the Order of the Garter or the Order of the Golden Fleece; the collars of new Chinese and Mongolian orders, therefore, are evidence of borrowing from the West. These chivalry-inspired collars also visually differentiate the awardees from other members of a society that supports social hierarchies, helping authoritarian regimes make use of such orders to single out select individuals from the marginalised majority. The President of Russia Vladimir Putin was awarded the Order of Friendship of the CPR in 2018.