The Early Days Of The Legitimacy Of The Chinese Communist Regime

There are different perspectives to interpret history. In this article, the initial historical period (1949-1956) of the People's Republic of China is examined in the context of legitimacy by establishing a new set of framework for analyzing. Related theories to the Western concept of legitimacy are first covered. Then the essential connotation of legitimacy and legitimate resource is discussed and sorted out. On the basis of Habermas's theory of reconstruction legitimacy, the article puts forward that legitimate resource is an orthodox resource, which serves as the starting point of the following logical analyses in the article. Based on some historical data, the author then analyses the pressures on the construction of legitimation of the political power of the Communist Party of China, which come from the political system, the efficiency in policy performance, policies and international relationship, and so on. It is supposed in this article that the key issue to ease pressures on the construction of legitimation is to exploit and maintain the legitimate resources. After that, based on a great deal of historical data, the author relates in detail the issue of how the Communist Party of China and Chinese government exploit and maintain their legitimate resource in the respects of ideology, political system, political achievement, Party and individual enchantment so as to show the basis of the legitimacy of the political power of the Communist Party of China in the initial historical period of the People's Republic of China. The article also relates some potential threatening factors that exist in the basis of the legitimacy of the political power of the Communist Party of China, which are men analyzed in detail with regard to ideology, political achievement and political system. The author pioneers a new framework to interpret the centralized system with Chinese characteristics by separating it into three perspectives, namely the planned economy system, the political system and the Party leading system. It is assumed that this framework can give a clearer description of the leading system which has potential crises. Obviously, the leading system of the Party causes the crises which in turn affect the material world.