Analysis On Contemporary Chinese Local Cadres’ Political Values

The research of cadres can help us to understand some of the essence of the political community which we live in. Research on cadres mainly has two topics:one is the characteristic of cadres as a team, and its changes; The other is the political psychology and culture of cadres as a group. The former has made a lot of achievements while the latter is particularly inadequate. With the questionnaire data of local cadres from around the country, this paper took rights and democracy as examples to explore local cadres’ attitude toward those values as principles or political systems. And then, this paper analyzed the level and influencing factors of modernization of local cadres’ political values, with modern political values as freedom, rights, pluralism stability, democracy, rule of law, social supervision on authority, election, etc.On the realization of political values, Local cadres consider that, Chinese citizens have more economic and social rights than political rights; When the rights of citizens have been violated, their actions to safeguard the rights are usually ineffective. China has been a democratic country, but its degree of democracy is general, and there is a big gap between our degree and that of the United States, Hong Kong or Taiwan. However, the degree of democracy of our country has greatly improved from 1979 and 1990, and this trend of progress will be maintained in the future.In terms of political values, local cadres already have a primary level of modern political values, with recognizing and supporting modern political values as freedom, rights, pluralism stability, democracy, rule of law, social supervision on authority, election, etc. However, local cadres always support certain limited freedoms and rights remedies with the emphasis on order. Local cadres support democracy, but they have a unique understanding of democracy, the democracy in their minds only guarantees citizens to express their views in the decision-making process. Local cadres evaluate democracy positively and rationally, and support democratization which is led by central authority and promoted by the masses with the method of progressive reform.Political values of local cadres will be influenced by factor as levels of government, professional work, and political affiliation, length of service, level of education, professional background, and moral priority.