(East-West Question) Chang Jian: How does the people's democracy safeguard democratic rights in the whole process?
China News Agency, Beijing, March 5th: How does the people's democracy safeguard democratic rights in the whole process?
Author Chang Jian Director of Human Rights Research Center of Nankai University, professor and doctoral supervisor of Zhou Enlai School of Government and Management of Nankai University
China is a centralized and unitary country, with a single government and a single sovereignty state structure.
China is also a big country in terms of population and geography, ranking first in the world in terms of population and third in terms of land area.
Implementing a democratic system in China faces particular challenges.
Historically, national division and feudal separatism are the greatest threats to the prosperity of the country and the stability of the people, and the realization of national unity is the general expectation of the society and the consensus of the whole people.
In the process of exploring the path of national modernization in modern China, various democratic systems have been tried.
Experience and lessons have shown that the biggest challenge in implementing a democratic system in China is how to ensure that the people are the masters of the country and effectively prevent the country from falling apart or even dividing.
China has a huge land area and a large population, and the situation varies greatly from place to place.
Adopting a comprehensive form of direct democracy is conducive to more direct reflection of public opinion, but it is easy to lead to the dispersion of state power or even the division of the country; the use of multi-level indirect democracy is conducive to safeguarding the unity of state power, but it is difficult to fully express the vastly different public opinions.
After a long period of exploration, China has gradually explored a new democratic system characterized by "people's democracy in the whole process" on the premise of maintaining a centralized and unitary state structure.
According to the white paper "Democracy in China" released by the State Council Information Office on December 4, 2021, people's democracy in the whole process "realizes the relationship between process democracy and outcome democracy, procedural democracy and substantive democracy, direct democracy and indirect democracy, people's democracy and national will. Unity is a democracy that is full-chain, all-round, and fully covered." It "combines electoral democracy with deliberative democracy, and integrates democratic election, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision, covering economic, political, cultural, social, ecological civilization and other aspects.”
On December 4, 2021, the State Council Information Office of China released the white paper "Democracy in China".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Kejia
In terms of effect, on the one hand, people's democracy in the whole process "enables all aspects and aspects of the country's political and social life to reflect the will of the people and hear the voice of the people, effectively preventing the phenomenon of making promises during elections and leaving no one after the elections." On the other hand, China "did not experience the social turmoil that late-developing countries are prone to occur in the process of modernization in the midst of drastic social changes, not only creating a miracle of rapid economic development, but also creating a miracle of long-term social stability."
From the perspective of political development, the major concept of people's democracy in the whole process is put forward, which shows that after the completion of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government will promote the political development of democracy in the process of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Willingness and active effort.
The advancement of democracy, although manifested in the form of the expansion and increase of democratic fields, levels, links, and forms, must ultimately be implemented in the expansion of the people's democratic rights.
Therefore, it is necessary to further explore in depth what democratic rights will be augmented by the people's democracy in the whole process, what new problems and challenges it will bring, and how to deal with these challenges.
On the evening of October 1, 2019, a party to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China was held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Democratic rights in politics, policy and governance
Based on the analysis of all parties, it can be found that the "full" expressed by "the whole process of people's democracy" mainly involves the following four aspects: First, the whole process chain, including democratic election, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision; It is all-round at all levels, including inner-party democracy and people's democracy, grassroots self-government democracy and national political democracy, domestic democracy and democratization of international relations; third, it covers all areas, including political democracy, economic democracy, military democracy, and cultural democracy; Fourth, all forms are included, including direct democracy and indirect democracy, electoral democracy and deliberative democracy, traditional democracy and network democracy.
But from the perspective of the process, the whole process of people's democracy involves three processes, namely the political process, the policy process, and the management process.
The political process mainly involves the distribution of power, including consultations, elections, appointments, legislation, law enforcement, and judiciary.
The policy process mainly involves the formulation and implementation of policies, including basic links such as problem identification, agenda setting, policy formation, policy legalization, policy implementation, and policy evaluation.
The management process mainly involves the operation of the economy and grass-roots social organizations, including basic links such as planning, organization, command, coordination, and control.
There is a certain overlap between the political process, the policy process and the management process, but they are still three different processes with important differences in their focus and internal logic.
There are also differences in the democratic rights involved in each process.
Democracy in the political process realizes that the people are the masters of the country, and the people determine the distribution and exercise norms of political power, which involves the people's right to choose and decide in the political field.
It involves the right to vote and stand for election in the political election, the right to know, participate, express, negotiate and supervise in the legislative process, and the right to know and supervise in the process of appointment, law enforcement, and justice.
Democracy in the policy process requires the people to restrict and supervise the policy process and prevent the entrusted political power executors from making decisions that go against the will and interests of the people.
It specifically involves the right to express advocacy in the process of policy proposal, the right to know, participate, express, negotiate and supervise decision-making in the process of policy formulation, the right to know and supervise in the process of policy implementation, and the right to participate and express in the process of policy evaluation.
Democracy in the management process is to realize the autonomous management of the grassroots communities and organizations by members of the society, which mainly involves the self-government rights of the grassroots.
This includes not only the right to know, participate, express, negotiate, and monitor the affairs of communities and organizations, but also the right to vote and vote.
In December 2021, in Zuosan Village, Yunhe Village Committee, Miaojie Town, Weishan County, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, the Yi people voted to elect the new deputies to the county and town people's congress.
Photo by Zhang Shulu issued by China News Agency
The People's Democracy's Optimizing Demand for Democratic Rights in the Whole Process
To promote people's democracy in the whole process, it is necessary to refine, expand and increase the democratic rights enjoyed by the people in the process of politics, policy and management.
The first is the refinement of the original democratic rights.
The democratic rights guaranteed in China are usually summarized as the right to vote, the right to know, the right to participate, the right to express, and the right to supervise.
The whole process and the whole chain of democracy requires further refinement of the specific content of each right.
For example, it is necessary to specify the various democratic rights in each link of the three processes, as well as the legal realization of these democratic rights.
The second is the expansion of the original scope of democratic rights.
According to the requirements of people's democracy in the whole process, it is necessary to appropriately expand the scope of the exercise of various democratic rights so that they can be reflected in all areas of society.
For example, expanding the right to know the electoral process, expanding the citizen's right to supervise the political process, etc., expanding the citizen's right to know, participating, and expressing the policy process, and expanding the autonomy of grassroots communities and social organizations.
The last step is to fill in or add democratic rights in some links.
According to the requirements of people's democracy in the whole process, it is necessary to add corresponding democratic rights in some links.
For example, in the appointment of major local officials, citizens' right of choice should be appropriately increased; in policy formulation and grass-roots management, citizens' right to negotiate should be appropriately increased.
The people's democracy in the whole process needs to improve the democratic mechanism
The whole process of people's democracy requires that the people's democratic rights be properly expanded in all aspects of the political, policy and management process.
However, the expansion of democratic rights may lead to a decrease in the efficiency and quality of decision-making and management, which is a new challenge that people's democracy must face in the whole process.
To improve the efficiency and quality of decision-making on the premise of ensuring the people's democratic rights, it is necessary to establish and improve a series of related mechanisms.
Specifically, it is necessary to improve the public-informed release and application mechanism, the collection of opinions from all parties and the consensus-forming mechanism, the representative and responsible mechanism for participation, the negotiation mechanism for different interests, the management mechanism for disagreement, the voting mechanism for choice, and the supervision mechanism. Inquiry and accountability mechanism, as well as the party's leadership and coordination mechanism for the whole process of democracy.
To sum up, the whole process of people's democracy is a form of democracy adopted in accordance with the specific national conditions of China as a country with a large population and geography that implements a centralized unitary system. It involves all aspects of the three processes of politics, policy and management. democratic rights.
Compared with the election-led democratic system based on the competition of political parties in the West, China's whole-process people's democracy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China can better safeguard and promote the overall and long-term interests of the country and the people, taking into account the interests of different groups in society. , effectively protect the interests of minority and disadvantaged groups, and form a strong development force.
The rapid economic and social development of China over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, as well as the successful practice of fighting against the new crown pneumonia epidemic this time, have proved the superiority of this democratic system over the democratic systems of some Western countries.
People's democracy in the whole process is a higher requirement for democracy.
The development of people's democracy in the whole process needs to refine, expand and increase the people's democratic rights, and at the same time improve the corresponding democratic mechanism to deal with the new challenges brought about by the increase of democratic rights.
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About the Author:
Chang Jian is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University, director of the Human Rights Research Center of Nankai University (National Human Rights Education and Training Base), and executive director of the China Human Rights Research Association.
The main research areas are human rights theory and system, public governance and conflict management.
Published academic monographs such as "Ideal, Paradox, and Reality of Human Rights", "Transformation of Rights Norms in Contemporary China", "Research on Human Rights Protection Policy in China", "Efficiency, Fairness, Stability and Government Responsibility", and compiled "General History of European and American Philosophy" (Modern Philosophy Vol. ) "Modern Leadership Science", "Public Conflict Management", "Leadership Course", "Civil Servant Training Human Rights Book", "Human Rights Knowledge Citizen Reader" and other textbooks, as the deputy editor of "China Human Rights Development Report" (Blue Book), "China Human Rights in Action" Editor-in-chief of "Cross-Cultural Human Rights Review" series of books, deputy editor-in-chief of "Cross-Cultural Human Rights Review" magazine, published more than 140 academic papers in professional academic journals, and published more than 40 comments and academic articles in "People's Daily", "Guangming Daily", "Chinese Journal of Social Sciences", etc. articles.
Participated in the drafting of several national human rights action plans and several government human rights white papers, and participated in and delivered speeches at the UN Human Rights Council meetings and side events as a member of the delegation of the Chinese Society for Human Rights Studies.