On Citizens' Democratic Consciousness In Contemporary China

Democracy has such interrelating manifestations as the state institution, basic-level institutions and citizens' consciousness. The former two offer systems and regulations to the third, while the third serves as a specific way to realize the former two. It thus can be easily seen that democratic consciousness, as an important part of social consciousness, is social subjects' reflection on their social existence and also a subjective expression of their relationship with democracy. As a result, citizens' democratic consciousness as an exact embodiment of people's ideological modernization in democratic and political systems, is in fact a spiritual driving force to react upon democratic practicesDemocratic consciousness covers citizens' knowledge, emotions, will and experiences of democracy, their attitude toward it, their pursuit and belief in it as well as their thinking pattern concerning it. It includes citizens' consciousness of their subjectivity, participation, rights and laws. Considering that citizens are the political body of democratic life, the vehicle of democratic consciousness and the actual subjects to realize democratic consciousness, there is every reason to say that democratic consciousness is basically that of citizens.Citizens' democratic consciousness consists of their knowledge and understanding of the concept, the authority and the spirit of democracy as well as the relationship between democracy and a law-based government. It displays people's longing for and their pursuit of a democratic life; and it also embodies the society's demand for democracy and its basic ideas about the values and the functions of democracy. Citizens'democratic consciousness has its basic functions in economy, politics, culture, society and education. Our country is now undergoing a critical transition of social structure and is also on the way of realizing a relatively comfortable living standard all around. Some important reformations on our economic system and social structure have not only had the social vitality fully released, the social wealth gush and citizens' democratic consciousness increasingly prosper, but also made many social problems more prominent and various conflicts, pressures and challenges arrive. The opening and popularity of the ideological market renders it more accessible for people to learn about such democratic concepts as liberty and equality. Every citizen in a socialist society is allowed to have their unique understanding of democracy and they will finally form their own values about democracy, too. It is obvious that the progress of a society no longer depends on the unified kind of ideology like before, nor does it demand for an absolute agreement on political statement. Times are advancing, so is the society. When we are showing our respect to the individual right for democracy and maintaining the individual liberty in democracy, we also have to recognize those democratic concepts shared in common, which needs the whole nation or even the entire society to build a common belief in democratic values and advocate the common sense of democracy. Such a judgment on democratic concepts certainly requires such political senses as negotiation and tolerance as well as virtues like cooperation and generosity from all the socialist citizens. Democratic values based on harmony and tolerance will surely be able to promote the mutual trust between members in the society, strengthen their communication and cooperation, lessen their political divergences, relieve their political conflicts and reach some democratic consensus. This process is one of seeking the common ground while reserving the differences, which is also the best interpretation of the democratic spirit. The compromise and tolerance in it is also a modern sense of democracy, in view that it can alleviate the want of social interactions and the deterioration of interpersonal relations brought by over competition in the market, and can thus realize the civilization of citizens'political behaviours. Led by this modern sense of democracy, we can give a rational and reasonable analysis and comprehension of some problems appearing on the road of political modernization, and also offer some necessary psychological support for the possible difficulties and frustrations coming along. Generally speaking, a modern political pattern based on the mind set which believes in the strength of concerted efforts will last longer and be more stable because it can enhance people's trust in the government, inspire people's active participation of political affairs and increase their knowledge of the practices in political modernization. All of these will eventually help accelerate the reformation of political modernization and impress the socialist citizens with such a grand political task.The citizens'democratic consciousness in contemporary China came into being together with the construction of socialist democratic politics. The growth of our citizens'democratic consciousness should become a fundamental parameter in considering the development of our democratic politics. How our citizens'democratic consciousness has been developing directly reflects the nature and the direction of China's socialist democracy, and symbolizes its crossing and evolution from a lower level to a higher one. Our citizens' democratic consciousness did not stay the same during different historical periods of our construction of democratic politics. With a deep exploration of the development of citizens' democratic consciousness in different periods since the foundation of People's Republic of China as well as a scientific assessment of the overall characteristics of our citizens' democratic consciousness nowadays, we can thus obtain some experiences and inspirations about the developing rules of citizens' democratic consciousness. Subsequently, to meet the need of establishing the socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics and to command the historical inheritance of our citizens'democratic consciousness will be of great instructive significance to explore the meaning and the nature of this Chinese type of socialist democracy and realize the scientification of our citizens' democratic consciousness.Although citizens' democratic consciousness in contemporary China does not include all about our citizens' democratic consciousness, it takes into consideration the overall layout of China's democratic political practices since 1949, and thus decides our own characteristics and developing rules in the operation of democratic construction. It can be safely claimed that the development of citizens' democratic consciousness was born with, is living and developing together with the construction of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics; and to what degree the modernization of our citizens'democratic consciousness can be realized directly determines how far the modernization of China's democracy can go in the future.