Political Elite Culture And Political Capacity Building

The history of the Communist Party of China is also a history of political elitetraining system. The CPC improve the whole quality of the Party and strength thecapability construction of the Party by using the cultivation of the political elite. In theprocess of revolution, construction and reform, the CPC gradually explore, build andperfect the system of the political elite training. Material carrier of the system is thebase of training political elite, which is mainly the party school and cadres of collegesand universities. The carrier of theory is training courses and contents of the system.Their function is to train new political elite consistent with the Party requirements, thusto enhance the quality of the Party, and promote the development of the Party. In ninetyyears of CPC’s development, according to the Party’s goals and strategies, the systemmainly developed two types of political elites: revolutionary elite and ruling elite.These elite have become the backbone of the Chinese communist revolution and theruling, which proved the effectiveness of the system.The changes of the political elite training system and the development of the CPCshow the characteristics of synchronicity, which is the epitome of the development.Before the founding of the PRC, the system was to start preliminary exploration,gradually established and perfected. Its target was cultivating outstanding revolutionaryelite to adapt to the war environment. The material carrier of the system constantlyimproves and the carrier of theory realized the localization of innovation after thedangers of dogmatism, which is the MAO Zedong thought. From the founding of thePRC to the end of the “cultural revolution”, the system implemented the developmentevolution, but in the end it became differentiation and fracture. The goal is to cultivatethe ruling elite after revolution, but due to the effect of internal and externalenvironment of comprehensive, the system carrier of theory evolved into the newdogmatism, and eventually it collapsed. After the reform and opening up, the CPCopened a new road to socialist modernization, the system was restored, and realized thechange and development. During this period, the system was dedicated to training newruling elite meeting the needs of the reform, and achieved innovation in the carrier oftheory and material. On the material carrier, the CPC construct the Chinesecharacteristic system of political elite training base, and the system boundary extends to abroad, and the CPC sends the political elite to overseas for training or investigations.On the theory carrier, the CPC build two dimensions of training content system whichare the guiding ideology and pragmatism orientation. In the dimension of ideology, theCPC make theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the main content of thenew ideological thoughts; in the dimension of realistic guidance, the curriculum contentis richer.The function of the system is to produce new political elite conformed to therequirements of the Party. On the one hand, the promotion party’s ability to learn canmake the party to be able to have the ability to deal with complicated situation; On theother hand, the integration of the political elite can strengthen the sense of identity andloyalty of the political elite to the Party in two aspects of ideological education and theparty spirit exercise. Of course, there are some problems in actual operation of thesystem, which are tensions between the ideological education and high quality of theruling elite training, between the party spirit exercise and personal interests, betweenpolitical logic and market hit. The key to solve these contradictions and problems lies instrengthening the party’s ideological discourse and making party firmly grasp thecultural leadership.The structure of this paper as follows:The first chapter is introduction. We mainly introduces the research question andthe selected topic significance, the related literature review at home and abroad,research and analysis methods, the key concept, and possible innovations in thischapter.The second chapter is the discussion of the modern political elite training andparty construction. From the origin and development of modern political party, wediscuss the significance of political elite training to the modern party construction. Wecompares political elite cultivation model between the western bourgeois politicalParties and Social Democrats. The former mainly cultivate the election-orientedpolitical elite, while the cultivation model of the latter has experienced great changes.This chapter mainly discusses the features and political elite cultivation model of theCommunist Party. The emphases on ideology, organization structure closely and in anon-competitive party system are the characteristics of Communist Party, so trainingmode of political elite is also a significant difference with the bourgeois political Partiesand Social Democrats. The third chapter is discussion of the exploration of the Party’s cadres trainingsystem before the founding of the PRC. We divide this period into four historicalperiods: the early period of founding and revolution, the agrarian revolution period,Anti-Japanese War period, and liberation war period. We respectively discuss politicalelite training system’s environment, the specific arrangement of system, systemperformance and variables affecting institutional changes of that periods.The fourth chapter is discussion of the evolution of the Party’s cadres trainingsystem from the founding of the PRC to reform and opening up. In the beginning of thefounding of new China, the CPC leads the people to resume production order and carryout the three big transformations. The socialist construction vigorous developed andpolitical elite training system also implemented the system evolution, so the CPC builtmore scientific the carrier of material and theoretical system. But after1957, along withthe domestic political movement, the system of training elite subsequently divided andfracture because of lacking the soil of continued evolution and change.The fifth chapter is discussion of the Party’s cadres training system vicissitudesince reform and opening up. During this period, the CPC realized the change of thepolitical line, shifted the focus of work into the economic construction, so also neededto cultivate a large number of new ruling elite to satisfy the needs of the reform. At thisstage, the CPC has realized the improvement of the political elite training materialcarrier and continuously updated the theory, thus promoted the change of system.The sixth chapter is characteristics, function and problems of the system. Systemshows the characteristics of synchronicity with the CPC change which are thecombination results by two aspects of party organization and ideological. The functionof the system is mainly to enhance Party’s ability to learn and achieve integration of thepolitical elite. There are some problems in actual operation of the system, which aretensions between the ideological education and high quality of the ruling elite training,between the party spirit exercise and personal interests, between political logic andmarket hit.We summarize the significance of political elite training system in the aspect ofimproving the capacity of the CPC party construction in the conclusion part of thisarticle. We think system of the CPC’s political elite training and the construction of theparty ability are basic party internal institutional arrangements. We also think thesystem has the characteristics of synchronicity with the CPC; the change is affected by basic variables of internal conflict, the external pressure, the new concept of input, andthe influence of the political elite. It is necessary to strengthen the ideological discourseand realize the ideological continuously updated to solve the tension within the system.