| This article selects supervision right, one of the critical fundamental civic rights, as the subject of research. Supervision right, basing on the theories of People's Sovereignty, rule by law, check and balance, human rights etc., is connected with many other fundamental rights, such as sovereignty, regime, and human rights. This article shows the development of such right of contemporary China in historical context. With the theory of constitution, it tries to disclose the process and development of democracy and legislation of contemporary China, draw the experience and lessons from the protection of supervision right provided by our constitution and other laws, and show the tendency of how to realize such right. Considering that there is still much room for the research on supervision right in constitutional context and the complicated and tough development of such right from contemporary China to now, this article focuses on the evolution of supervision right. This article clarifies the content, nature and characteristics of supervision right, which has never been touched in research on constitution. Moreover, this article draws the picture of the tough development of supervision right in contemporary China, and experience and lessons with a methodology for historical analysis.This article consists of three parts: preface, texts (5 chapters) and conclusion. Preface: In this part, the article states the reasons and the meaning of selecting supervision right as the subject of research. Logically, with the theory of democratic constitution and politics, this article aims to comment on the status quo of supervision right and find out the tendency of it.Chapter One: Theoretical Analysis of Supervision Right With the methodology of theoretical analysis, this chapter distinguishes the concepts of supervision, the power of supervision and supervision right, and lists various teachings of the nature of such right in detail. After summarizing the features of 6 rights (the rights to criticize, make suggestions, charges, expose, complains, get compensation) provided in article 41 of our constitution, this article concludes that supervision right is such an independent right which can cover the 6 rights mentioned above. Therefore, supervision right in this article concludes not only the rights to criticize, make suggestions, charge, expose, but the rights to demonstration, bring administrative suits and get state compensation as well. In addition, this chapter finds out the value and function of supervision right. It has the value of justice, order and freedom. It can assist to fight for human rights, promote democracy, keep a stable political atmosphere and harmonious society, curb corruption.Chapter Two: The Sources of Supervision Right of Contemporary China. First of all, in ancient China, there were occasional supervision activities conducted by ordinary people against officers. However, all these activities worked as means of adjusting policies and keeping the regime under control. Although people can conduct supervision activities, which are the fruit of elite politics, but have no such right under the relationship of controller and the controlled, because of the highly centralized feudalism and the awareness of being controlled. Secondly, at the end of Qing dynasty, the awareness of supervision right came into being in China and prevailed. The enlightenment of people's sovereignty, the awareness of democracy and participating in the political activities drove the formulation of the primary content of supervision right. During the preparation for Xinhai Revolution, the awareness of democracy and supervision right had been strengthened. Sun Yatsen's thought of supervision right had played an important role in the formulation and development of the system of supervision in Kuoming period. During the New Cultural Campaign, the acceptance of the people's sovereignty and the concerns on people's participation in political activities improved democracy and supervision. Thirdly, during the drafting of constitution at the end of Qing dynasty, political rights of the people, including supervision right, had been mentioned and confirmed by the Blueprint of the Constitution of the Empire and other constitutional documents. The demonstration campaign to the parliament, the establishment of congress to supervise the government, the autonomy of local governments showed that it almost came true that people can supervise the government. From the above analysis, it is clear that supervision right and the opinion of constitution came into being simultaneously. But the thought of supervision right was not systematical because of the influence of western thought and Chinese traditional culture.Chapter Three: The Development of Supervision Right in Contemporary China.In this chapter, analysis of regulations and empirical studies are conducted at three stages. At the primary stage, the early period of the Republic of China. The party of bourgeois revolution led by Sun Yat-sen had recognized supervision right by legislation and then practiced it, such as the right to suit and state provided in the Interim of Ezhou of the Republic of China, the thought that people enjoys the Sovereignty, the right to suit, bring administrative suit and demonstrate provided in the Interim of the Republic of China, the right to state, express their hope and consensus supervision provided in local legislations. Otherwise, during the reign of Beiyang Military, supervision right was provided in constitutional documents and the institutions safeguard the application of such right were set up.During this period, the aim set at the early period of the bourgeois revolution was betrayed by the military politics, which means that supervision right is hard to come true.The second stage, period of government of Kuomintang. During this period, constitutions or constitutional documents concerning with supervision right came out, such as Taiyuan Agreement, Agreement of the Republic of China during educating people period, Draft of the Constitution of the Republic of China and the Constitution of the Republic of China (1946). Besides, there were many debates on supervision right. As for the supervisory institutions, there were departments in charge of supervision and penalty of officers in Guangzhou, supervision department and administrative court in Nanjing. At that time, the state compensation system, although at the primary stage, the autonomy of local governments, the campaign for compensation for wrong decisions improved the development of supervision right. However, the Nanjing Government of the Republic of China ruled the country by only one party, which curbed the development of supervision right.The third stage, the base of people's revolution was set up. With the thought of supervision right in the new democracy revolution led by CPC came out and supervision right was practiced, it seemed that the development of supervision right entered a new stage. According to many documents, supervision right was protected. Institutions to protect supervision right were set up. This article considers the theory and practice are meaningful at constitutional and political level. As means to strengthen the regime, fight against corruption, supervision right is quite simple, emphasizes more on the application of the right to expose and criticize and in the form of organized campaign.Chapter Four: Development of Supervision Right Since the Establishment of the People's Republic of ChinaThe development of supervision right has experienced three stages since the establishment of the People's Republic of China.Stage I: From 1949 to June 1957.Supervision right was emphasized by the authority. The supervision right was protected by the constitution and implemented through relevant institutional arrangement. However, traditionally, the commands and dictations of the political leaders were of the highest priority and affect, therefore, rule by people had never been fully replaced by rule by law. In addition, for lacking of systematic and efficient arrangement for supervision, complains about and suits against governmental units and civil servants failed to be handled in time and fairly and not all of the damages of the people caused by administrative activities could be compensated reasonably. Therefore, the people had to turn to the press.Stage II: From June 1957 to December 1978.Because of the destroyed democracy, supervision right was distorted. Any suggestions and complains against the Culture Revolution was considered as evil attack and the people who did that were punished according to so-called law. It is the result of the prevailing thought of rule by people and that law is meaningless, the lack of supervision and check on power and treating democracy as a tool.Stage III: From December 1978 to NowDuring this period, supervision right has been well protected and fully implemented. After the third session of the eleventh CPC, Deng Xiaoping's theory and thought of supervision have laid foundation for the Constitution of 1982. In the Constitution of 1982, supervision right was fully confirmed, according to which the systems of administrative suit, state compensation and the right to propose the motion of examining the constitutionality or legality were set up. The establishment of the Discipline Committee of CPC, the National Administrative Supervision System and the Hearing System help the people to implement supervision right at institutional level. At the end of this chapter, some profound thought about the development of supervision right provided in the Constitution of 1982 was made.Chapter Five: Where should Existing Supervision Right Go.This part consists of two parts. In the first part, the principle conditions to fully implement supervision right are listed. The conditions include making the implementation organized and socialized, protecting the right to know the truth, opening administrative activities, establishing the mutual activities of supervision right and supervision power and fostering modern civic awareness. All these, prerequisite of democracy, are critical to the development of supervision right. In the second part, the measures to protect supervision right, such as the right to scold, propose suggestions, suit, complain and get state compensation, are listed. The right to scold and provide suggestions should be standardized, the right to suit, complain and report legalized, getting the state compensation normalized. As for the Hearing System, various conflicts should be tackled by judicial means. ConclusionFrom the history of supervision right, it is clear that the system of democracy protects supervision right, while the implementation of supervision right is important to democracy. Supervision right comes along with democracy, while the realization of democracy depends on the implementation of supervision right. The development of supervision right is only part of the history of democracy. This article comes to conclusion that the main reason why the supervision right failed to be realized is that the authorities of different period treated it as nothing but a tool. Only those who threat it as a right of the people--the owner of a country, supervision right can be a true right and be enjoyed by the people.
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