A Study Of Political Participation Of Citizens In China's Contemporary Democratic Development

Socialist democracy is one of the essential characteristics of socialism, and developing socialist democracy represents a major component in socialist modernization. Today, in the process of building a harmonious socialist society, democracy and the rule of law are particularly emphasized as essentials of societal harmony. It is always a fundamental task for us to further develop socialist democracy in building a harmonious society. But how should this task be carried out? Should we rely on the top-to-bottom reform in political structure? Or should we count on the bottom-to-top participation of the vast citizens? This is an issue that deserves deep research.This paper holds that we should adopt a realistic approach in developing China's democracy. On the one hand, we should attach importance to reform in political structure; on the other hand, we cannot neglect democratic development at the basic level——especially political participation of citizens (PPC). Practice has showed that ordered and effective PPC can maintain political stability and contribute to the harmonious development of society. Therefore, promoting PPC should be regarded as a basic driving force as well as a key lever in the development of socialist democracy. The right approach for such a purpose is to make a careful analysis of the present situation of China's PPC, to sort out the problems and find out the solutions, and to map out a political participation pattern (or patterns) which is/are compatible with China's present conditions. Only by doing these, can we enhance ordered and effective PPC and further advance China's reform, opening-up and socialist modernization.Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, this paper is composed of seven parts.The introduction expounds on four issues. The first one is the rationale for this piece of research. We believe thaMhe insufficiency of PPC is exerting a negative influence on China's democratic development, and the solution to this problem will assume far-reaching significance in terms of deepening political participation theory, enriching socialist democratic forms, promoting people's approval and sense of belonging to socialism, cultivating politically sound citizens needed in our time, maintaining political stability of socialist society and accelerating the construction of socialist harmonious society. The second issue is literature review. We believe that we should deepen and expand domestic researches in terms of content and paradigm as well as draw references from overseas researches. The third issue is definition of some main concepts such as Democracy and Political Participation. The last one expounds on the designing and methods of the research.In part I, we begin by expounding on the view that socialist democracy is an essential requirement and an intrinsic property of socialism and come to the conclusion that socialist democracy shall play a significant roll in socialist modernization. We then elaborate the present situation of constructing a socialist harmonious society under the guidelines of scientific concept of development, which leads to the conclusion that socialist democracy is much needed for constructing a socialist harmonious society. On the basis of above analyses, we conclude this part by emphasizing that we have to properly recognize and rationally conform to the global tendency of democracy, and follow a democratic developing road with Chinese characteristics.Part II fully demonstrates the point that promoting PPC should be regarded as the breach for developing socialist democracy. First, we make an analysis on the essence, role and influence of elite politics, and expound on the historical development and contemporary expression of PPC. By this we arrive at the conclusion that China cannot adopt the elite pattern in developing democracy, and we urge the grass roots to actively take part in PPC. Second, we make an assessment of the general value of PPC for modern democracy. We believe PPC is the driving force of democratic development, the basic requirement and characteristic of all democratic forms, as well as the certain tendency and evaluation basis of democratic development. Last, we summarize the merit of PPC in terms of socialist democracy from four aspects: PPC can best embody the essence of socialist democracy; PPC is the best form for the realization of socialist democracy; PPC is the best breach tor advancing socialist democracy; PPC can contribute to the comprehensive development of human being.Part III begins with a review of China's PPC development since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC. During this period, the former enclosed PPC environment kept opening up; interest divergence has been steadily raising public awareness of PPC; formalist participation has gradually faded away, giving way to substantive participation; self-administration movement in rural areas and administrative participation in urban communities arc developing rapidly and healthily. All these should be fully approved. Following the review is an analysis of present problems in China's PPC and their causes. We point out that there exist, to various extent, some ill practices in PPC, namely, parochial participation, chaotic participation, blind participation, indifferent participation and over-expectation in participation. All these demonstrate the insufficiency of China's PPC. Lastly, we point out the grave effects of PPC insufficiency on China's democratic development: insufficient PPC can produce vague ideas about socialist democracy among the general public, can undermine the stability and harmonious development of the society in the long run, and can even lead to dictatorship disguised as democracy.In part IV, reflection is made on constructing a PPC system in China against the background of modernization. Such a system is seen as a vital force in maintaining China's political stability. We hold that the government should pay serious attention to, make proper analyses of, and provide guidance for the growing democratic aspiration among the people and increasing political participation supported by modern technology. Then, from the perspective of developing countries, we make a general discussion on the relationship between political participation and political stability. The discussion brings us to the conclusion that establishing a dynamic and ordered concept of stability will be of far-reaching significance for the modernization of developing countries. Considering the actual conditions in China, we believe that political stability can only be sought through healthy interaction between political participation and political stability. That's why we have to establish a PPC system with Chinese characteristics. Lastly, we discuss the issues we should pay close attention to during the whole course of constructing such a system.In part V, we hold that developing socialist democracy necessarily demands expansion of ordered PPC, and expansion of ordered PPC, in turn, demands strengthened and improved political guidance of the Chinese Communist Party. We then make a through examination of the definitions of two terms: "expansion" and "ordered". After a careful analysis of China's unbalanced development, we point out that it is the unbalanced development that constrains China's socialist democratic development. Therefore, we can only adopt an unbalanced pattern in advancing China's PPC. For this purpose, this paper also discusses the operation principles and measures of unbalanced PPC development.Part VI discusses measures of promoting PPC in China's socialist democratic development. The following measures are seen as necessary: to actively create favorable conditions for PPC; to systematize and routinize PPC; to construct PPC culture in fostering and developing a civil society; to improve citizens' PPC ability by education and practice. Only by promoting the overall effectiveness of PPC, can socialist democracy be manifested and realized.Part VII discusses the relationship between developing PPC and building socialist harmonious society from two aspects: PPC as the requirement of socialist harmonious society and fully developed PPC as a contributing factor to societal harmony. We hold that fully developed PPC is a criterion for assessing a society's democracy and rule of law, an essential requirement for social justice and equality, and a concentrated embodiment of societal vitality. Fully developed PPC is also seen as necessary in coordinating distribution of wealth among different social strata, in optimizing government behavior in terms of public policy, and in promoting people's enthusiasm for building a harmonious society.In the conclusion we define the task of creating new PPC forms to advance ordered and effective PPC, a task that calls for much effort in practice. We consider fully developing PPC as an inevitable choice for China to achieve substantive development of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics.