Consultative Democracy Of Chinese Socialism

The socialist deliberative democracy is an important part of people’s democracyin our country, it is the synthesis of Chinese traditional culture with Marx’s theory ofdemocracy, the combination of Chinese Communist united front thought and China’scontemporary social reality requires，which gradually develops and forms a form ofsocialist democracy. The development of the socialist deliberative democracy theoryand practice has made an important contribution to the promotion of Chinesecharacteristic socialist democratic politics construction.The presentation of the concept of “the socialist deliberative democracy” inthe Eighteenth National Congress is the Party’s significant theoretical innovation tosocialist democratic theory. It is a practice experiences summarization on thedemocratic practice since the founding of the people’s political consultativeconference and social deliberative democracy practice experience. It also opens up anew direction and for the further development of socialist democratic politics withChinese characteristics. In the same time, this concept puts forward new tasks for allthe theorists. How to understand its connotation and value, how to summarize itsdevelopment history, how to treat the development situation and problems of itsinsufficiency, and how to promote the rapid development of it, are theoretical andrealistic problems which we must answer during the development of the deliberativedemocracy nowadays. By this thought, this paper attempts to answer these questions,using the method analyzing and investigating historical textual research and thepractical problems. The paper’s aim is to find the most likely method and path of thedevelopment of the socialist deliberative democracy, on the basis of exposing of itsdefinition, characteristics, value, history, current situation, experiences and problems.Besides the introduction, the paper is divided into three parts: the origin anddevelopment, experiences and problems, countermeasures and suggestions.The first part is Chinese Socialist Deliberative Democracy: origin anddevelopment. The paper presents the conception “the socialist deliberativedemocracy”, following a path from history to reality, from the west to China. Theconcept of deliberative democracy gradually becomes clear after a review of theevolution of democracy’s history and the continuation of the deliberation tradition.They seem to have coincided with each other long before, but seem to blend togetheronly in modern times. The representative democracy which is traditionally dominated in the West gradually gets into the diplomacy of trouble with the development of thesituation. The theorists criticize and reflect the representative democratic politicalpractice, dredge the deliberative component in classical democracy, and put forwardthe theory of deliberative democracy. The paper introduces the connotation of Westerndeliberative democracy by comparative analysis from different angles. It then leads tothe definition of Chinese Socialist Deliberative Democracy by the comparisonbetween China and the West in the similar way. Then the paper analyses thecharacteristics of the deliberative democracy and Chinese Socialist DeliberativeDemocracy, to explain that the socialism deliberative democracy is a unity ofgenerality and particularity. As deliberative democracy the essence should be held out.As socialist deliberative democracy, the advantages should be carried forward.Any kind of theory can not be passive water without source. Chinese SocialistDeliberative Democracy is deeply rooted in Chinese traditional culture, and is theinheritance and development of Marx’s united front theory, political theory, politicaltheory and the Party’s mass line. The analysis and the elaboration to the theory basisand ideological origins of the socialist deliberative democracy are to explain itsChinese Endogenousness, and to pave the path for the following review of thedevelopment history.To review the history, Chinese Socialist Deliberative Democracy has gonethrough more than half a century from budding to form, from frustration to recovery,from the development to the integration. It has experienced from the revolutionaryunited front to the national basic political system, then to a form of democracy. It hasexperienced from the deliberation in party level to the national level, then to theextension of the state and society bidirectional multi-layer. In every stage of itsdevelopment, it played an important role to China’s social development, madeenormous contribution, also lay a foundation for the further development ofdeliberative democracy in China.The paper’s analysis of the practical value of Chinese Socialist DeliberativeDemocracy includes factual summary and necessity of generalization. It is ofimportant value. It is the true embody that the people are in power. It is the importantway of the Party’s and state’s democratic and scientific decision. It is the mainchannel for citizens’ orderly political participation. It is the political guarantee forsocial harmony. It is the main arena to foster modern civil awareness. All of thesemake clear necessity and reasonableness of its birth, development and perfection. The paper’s analysis of the practical value of Chinese Socialist DeliberativeDemocracy includes factual summary and necessity of generalization. It is ofimportant value. It is the true embody that the people are in power. It is the importantway of the Party’s and state’s democratic and scientific decision. It is the mainchannel for citizens’ orderly political participation. It is the political guarantee forsocial harmony. It is the main arena to foster modern civic awareness. All of thesemake clear necessity and reasonableness of its birth, development and perfection.The second part is China Socialist Deliberative Democracy’s political system,experiences and deficiencies. Based on the historical development, Chinese SocialistDeliberative Democracy’s current forms of practice consultation continuously becomerich, its fields expand unceasingly, its institutions are gradually perfect, and its basicconcepts have been integrated into the socialist democratic politicswith Chinese characteristics. The practice of deliberative democracy widely exists inthe current political system in various institutional forms. Different forms ofdeliberative democracy institutions practice do work in all areas and at all levels ofChina’s social and political life, such as the Chinese People’s Political ConsultativeConference, National People’s Congress, government, political parties, local andnetwork.The development of Chinese Socialist Deliberative Democracy not only needs tosummarize the successful experience, but also to analyze the shortcomings andproblems. The basic historical experiences of the development of socialist democracyare to uphold the leadership of the party, to uphold the people’s democracy, and touphold the deliberation by law. All these vividly demonstrated the unity of theleadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country andlaw-based governance which we call the socialist path of making political advancewith Chinese characteristics in the development of Chinese Socialist DeliberativeDemocracy. On the other hand, because of the restriction of China’s such realisticconditions as economic, political, cultural and deliberative democracy itself factors,we must be keenly aware that there is still much room for improvement and there area lot of difficulties and problems. The defects of deliberative democracy itself, theunderdevelopment of election democracy, the immature development of civil society,and the loss of the traditional democratic culture are all unfavorable factors restrictingthe development of Chinese Socialist Deliberative Democracy. There are still manyshortcomings and problems such as the imperfect system, the lack of the main elements and the unbalanced development. There is still a long way to go.On the foundation of the above analysis and demonstration, the last part of thepaper makes a tentative exploration on the development of Chinese socialistdeliberative democracy. In general terms, the paper suggests dealing with three mainrelations and targeting the three directions. Three important relationships to dealinclude the relationship of deliberative democracy and Election democracy, the Partyleadership and deliberative equality, deliberative democracy in national level and insocial level. Three efforts aimed: the first is to cultivate the citizen culture and citizensociety, the second is to improve the socialist democracy system, and the third is tostrengthen the construction of the deliberative democracy elements.