China's President Xi Jinping (C) walks past delegates during the opening session of the 20th Chinese Communist Party's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 16, 2022.After the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to embark on the new-democratic revolution aimed at opposing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism. Photo by Noel CELIS / AFP
Ren Liying
Political modernisation is the evolution process from traditional politics to modern politics, and it is also a political system’s response to the challenges of modernisation.
China's political modernisation is precisely such a process of actively seeking modernisation transformation to address international and domestic challenges, and gradually forming a new political modernisation model with whole-process people's democracy as the core through continuous development and improvement.
In modern history, China has attempted Western democratic models such as constitutional monarchy, democratic republic, but all ended in failure.
After the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to embark on the new-democratic revolution aimed at opposing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism.
In September 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Program of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference which defined the basic political system and development direction of new China.
In 1954, the First National People's Congress adopted the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, marking the formal establishment of the socialist political system in new China.
The Communist Party of China has become the leading core of the new state power, and the establishment of political institutions such as the People's Congress system, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, state administrative organs, judicial organs, and military institutions, has provided legal political authority and professional political structure for China's political modernisation.
The CPC regards the development of socialist democracy as one of its important missions. Especially after the reform and opening up, democracy has become an important goal of socialist political modernisation.
In specific practice, the CPC and the state have promoted a series of measures for democratic political construction, including expanding the role of the people's congress system, promoting democratic construction at grassroots level, and encouraging the public’s democratic participation.
Based on the full demonstration of the effectiveness of socialist democracy, the CPC proposed the concept and system framework of the whole-process people's democracy, taking the development of whole-process people's democracy as the essential requirement of Chinese path to modernisation, which marks that China's political modernisation is moving towards a higher level and a higher quality of institutionalised construction.
The whole-process people's democracy is an exploration result of China's political modernisation process, and also an innovation of the modern democratic political system model.
The system framework of whole-process people's democracy consists of three democratic political systems, five democratic process units, and five democratic rights. The three democratic political systems refer to the system of people's congresses, socialist consultative democracy, and grassroots democracy.
Specifically, local people's congresses and national people's congresses are formed by electing deputies among the public at all levels, and the formation of legislative and deliberative bodies at all levels of the country follows the same approach; relevant policies that have a significant impact on the national economy and people's livelihood require extensive consultation and consensus among different groups before formulation and during implementation.
This broad public opinion foundation is an important source of legitimacy and effectiveness for national policies; at the same time, grassroots society implements full autonomy, where the people directly exercise various political rights granted by the grassroots democratic system.
The five democratic process units include election, consultation, decision-making, management, and supervision, which are interconnected to form a complete political closed-loop process, and also provide application scenarios for the five democratic rights, namely the right to vote, the right to information, the right to participate, the right to expression, and the right to supervision.
It can be said that the whole-process people's democracy has achieved the unity of process democracy and outcome democracy, procedural democracy and substantive democracy, direct democracy and indirect democracy, people's democracy and national will, and is a full chain, all-round and comprehensive democracy.
The similarity between the whole-process people's democracy model and the Western liberal democracy model is that both emphasise that the people are the ultimate source of power, and the rule of law constrains power, also encouraging citizen participation and expressing citizen will through elections. However, there are also many differences between the two democratic models, including:
Firstly, the whole-process people's democratic model is based on the Marxist democratic concept and the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics, emphasising the organic combination of people's sovereignty, collective interests, and modernisation of national governance.
The liberal democratic model is based on liberalism, emphasising individual freedom, private property, and market economy, as well as limited government and balances of power.
Secondly, the whole-process people's democratic model emphasises the all-round participation of the people in the democratic process, including elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and supervision.
The liberal democratic model mainly achieves democracy through periodic elections and multi-party competition, with people's participation mainly concentrated in the election process.
Thirdly, the whole-process people's democratic model regards the rule of law as a tool to achieve people's democracy, emphasising that laws and systems guarantee the broad participation of the people.
The rule of law in the liberal democratic model is the cornerstone of protecting individual freedom, emphasising the separation of powers, power balances and constraints, and maximising the limitation of government power.
Fourthly, the whole-process people's democratic model emphasises collective values and public interests, and focuses on the breadth, authenticity, and effectiveness of democracy. The liberal democratic model emphasises individual freedom and rights, and focuses on the procedures and forms of democracy.
In general, ensuring that “the people” as the subject of the whole-process people's democracy can always be “present” in all aspects and every node of the socialist democracy practice with Chinese characteristics is the institutional logic and prerequisite for the existence, development, and function of the whole-process people's democracy.
It is also the essential characteristic that distinguishes Chinese socialist democracy from other forms of democracy in the world.
This political practice model is in line with China's reality and the expectations of its people, and it is also the fundamental reason why it can truly transform institutional advantages into governance effectiveness through institutionalisation, standardisation, and procedural construction.
IOL