Political Legitimacy Problem In The Process Of Modernization, The Communist Party Of China Research

Political legitimacy is a major topic in the Theory of Political Development. It focuses on how to keep the balance of the socio-political order, characterized with the public voluntary identity, support and obey, which lays the foundation of a steady political rule. From the historical perspective, we can see that all the reigns need to obtain the identity and the support from the public so as to lower the ruling cost and contribute to the political order. After twenty-eight years of armed revolution, the Chinese Communist Party gained the leadership of Chinese modernization and concurrently obtained the political legitimacy. However, in the long period of ruling, the original legitimacy was decreasing, especially after the Open Policy was enacted and ushered our nation to severe challenge in face of the profound changes in the society. There is a crisis in the political legitimacy of the Party and concerning to the healthy development of Chinese modernization. Since the political legitimacy is the foundation of the Party's ruling and it must pay much attention to explore the resources of the legitimacy. In China, the theory of legitimacy was ignored to some extend, the legitimacy of the Party has never been realized, and the relevant research is still on the initial stage. Arguing from the perspective of the Political Legitimacy Theory, this thesis tries to analyze the transforming process and historical stages of the Party's political legitimacy since it dominated. From this macro perspective in the context of modernization discourse, the thesis demonstrates the crisis and challenges faced by the Party in recent period of social reforms and deliver advices on how to re-construct its political legitimacy. The thesis has four parts altogether delving into the Party's political legitimacy in the process of modernization. The first part introduces the Theory of Political Legitimacy, which has two schools. One is empiricism-oriented theory, which believes that the political legitimacy is based on the public support and affiliation. The other is standard-oriented theory, which thinks that the political legitimacy should be based on social justice. The author claims that the foundation of the political legitimacy should include notion, regulations and validity. The second part of the essay presents the historical transformation of the Party's political legitimacy after it rules. Since the Party has different purpose for the political legitimacy in difference period of time, the author divides the whole process into three periods.The third part analyses the crisis faced by the Party in the social transformation in terms of political performance, political integration, political participation, power, social justice and political culture.The fourth part tentatively explores the re-constructed political legitimacy of the Party. From the stand point of view of the author, the fundamental reform in the Party's political legitimacy depends on the enforced ideology, promotion of the social justice as the base for political performance and the institutionalization of the democracy to structure the regulations.