On The Right Of Recall Of Voters Under The People’s Congress System

The right of recall, as an important way to realize democratic supervision, guarantees therights of the electorate. However in China few cases of recalling people’s representative arerecorded, which implies electorate’s inadequate participation resulted from the fact that theright of recall fails to fulfill its expected functions within the system of People’s Congress.The constitution of China prescribes the electorate with the right of recall. But why do variousobstacles stand in the way of its play? Do the electorate lack in the awareness of supervision?Is the system of recall to be refined? Are there defects with the right of recall itself? Severalquestions regarding the right of recall need to be answered.In order to have a better understanding of the right of recall, we need to identify the natureof the right of recall. We need to obtain a deeper understanding of the right throughcomparing its domestic and foreign origins and probing its historical evolution. Differentfrom other political rights, the right of recall has the property closer to power. Therefore, itshould be defined as power instead of right. Within the system of People’s Congress in China,the electorates hold in their hands the power of supervision. But they seldom apply the rightto safeguard their rights. Though the awareness of the electorates contributes to thephenomenon, the rooted cause lies in the system.First, the legislation over the right of recall is not complete, with defects in the procedureof recall, which renders the right of recall inapplicable. Though the constitution defines theprinciples of the right of recall, laws, such as the electoral law and the representative law, donot provide with detailed rules on how to apply the right. The right cannot be applied until thelaws related give clear instructions and solid support. Second, the application of the rightlacks the institutional support. Like the application of the right to vote, the application of theright of recall also needs money and human resources. Last but least, inadequate awareness insupervision and lack in effective methods to supervise are other obstacles preventing theapplication of the right.With the obstacles mentioned above, we can find methods to apply the right of recallthrough perspectives like legislation, system, electorate awareness and structuralestablishment. First, we need to refine legislation to provide the right of recall with legislativesupport. Second, we need to provide the right of recall with institutional support. Third, weneed to establish the institution of communication between the electorates and therepresentatives in order to strengthen the electorates’ ability to supervise. Last, we can set upa special institution to instruct the electorates on how to apply the right of recall.