Study On The Institutional Building Of Deliberative Democracy Among The Political Parties In China Today

Institutions are the code to bound people's behavior. In general sense, an institution includes four basic elements: culture, norms, carrier and mechanism. Democracy itself is a kind of state institutions. The basic connotation of democracy is the people's power. After three waves' shock of democratization, democracy has won widespread recognition in the world. The core feature of modern democracy is the party politics. Political party, in essence, is the representative of particular class interests. It is a political organization composed of the political backbone of class, and its objective is to seize the state political power or to consolidate the state power. As an aspect of the national institutions, the political party institution also includes four elements, that is, political culture, substantive norms, operating agencies and the operation mechanism.From the broad sense, democracy can be divided into two basic forms. One is electoral democracy, the other is deliberative democracy. From the theoretical research point, although it is only a democratic theory rose after the 1980s, the concept and practice of deliberative democracy is as old as democracy itself. Therefore, democracy includes deliberation. Deliberative democracy can occur in the field of civil society and in the state's political field. Party politics has become the world trend today. Although different political party institutions have been taken in different countries, deliberation among the different political parties is increasing important.Our political party institution is the System of Multi-party Cooperation and Political Consultation Led by the CPC today. It is a kind of deliberative democracy institution in essence. The political parties' deliberative democracy in China today (the CPPDD) is an institutional arrangement which is supported by the socio-political culture and is confirmed by state law. This institutional arrangement has a precondition of upholding the Four Cardinal Principles and a basis of taking into account the public interest extensively. In which institutional arrangements, to overcome the bounded rationality and to reach a basic consensus in the 'major principles' and the 'important issues', the ruling party and the democratic parties discuss equally and freely, which give legitimacy and scientific to legislative and decision-making and make them implement smoothly.This institution originated from the specific environment of the political ecology in the New Democratic Revolution, and formally established in the time of the founding of the PRC. In the last nearly 60 years, signing to the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress, the CPPDD parties can be divided into two historical periods: the period of socialist revolution and construction as well as the new era of reform and opening-up. The first period can roughly been divided into three stages: from October 1, 1949 to 1956 is the smooth development stage; from the beginning of Anti-Rightist expansion in 1957 to the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution is the tortuous and ups-and-downs stage; it is a stagnation stage during the Cultural Revolution. Since reform and opening-up, the political parties' deliberative democracy construction can be divided into two stages: it is recovered and developed mainly by Views of the CPC Central Committee on Adhering to and Improving the CPC-led Multi-party Cooperation and Political Consultation System before 1989; after that it is institutionalized.In the standard sense, the CPPDD has its important value. It can help the CPC to overcome the bounded rationality and to get scientific decision-makings; can be on behalf of citizens to participate in politics and safeguard social stability; can enhance the state's political oversight and to statute the political power; can integrate the social forces and format the history forces together; can increase political legitimacy and consolidate the CPC's ruling status. At the same time, it has its own requirements in the deliberative participants, the deliberative object, the deliberative principle, the deliberative places and the deliberative results. Its form is also different from the general sense of the other kind of deliberative democracy. As a result, the CPPDD embodies its own characteristics.In the experience sense, the CPPDD construction has made great achievement. However, there are many areas can be improved. In cultural building, the value recognition has yet to be enhanced by the ruling party and the participating parties; in the substantive norms, the proportion of policy is too high and the state will regulates too macro; in the organizational building, the agencies of the CPPCC and the organizations of democratic parties have yet to be perfected; in the operation mechanism building, the procedures and the evaluation mechanism have yet to be improved.The CPPDD building has a relatively long history and a good tradition, and it also has a long political cultural foundation. Deliberative democracy is growing up, and especially political parties' deliberation is increasing daily in the West. When we face such situation, in order to deal with external challenges, we must further promote the CPPDD building. Now we must comprehensively push it forward by fostering political culture, developing the substantive norm, improving the operation agencies and improving the operation mechanism.