Political Loyalty In Political Elite Circulation Of Contemporary China-a Tentative Discussion

After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the party and the nation have taken a series of remarkable measures towards the contingent of leading cadres.The measures include increasing anti-corruption efforts,making higher requirements to the virtue of leading cadres,revising "The ordinance of appointing cadres of our Party and country" to standardize the procedure of selecting and employing political elite etc.These remarkable measures attract public attention and provoke reflective thoughts over political elite as well as the selection and employment of political elite.It is not hard to find that these measures have enhanced the requirements for political elite to observe political discipline.Moreover,it is a period when political loyalty of political elite is most valued since the reform and opening-up.This essay takes political elite as the research object and focuses on the factor of political loyalty that influences the circulation of political elite.At the same time,this essay will analyze the transformation of the role that political loyalty plays during different historical periods and political process.This essay tries to profoundly reveal the function of political loyalty in the process of party-governance through the study into the factor of political loyalty in existing theories.Political loyalty is not only a moral concept and an inevitable requirement for party members,but also a tool for the ruling party to control and regulate bureaucratic organizations as well as govern the country effectively.This essay divides the process of the circulation of political elite into three phases.The first phase is totalism,which denotes a unified political system led by Mao Zedong under omnipotent ideology.In this phase,the connotation of political loyalty is the continuation of revolutionary period,which not only emphasizes the loyalty to Communist Party and socialist road,but also require political elite to be faithful to the path of class struggle.And the loyalty to the path of class struggle is the primary standard for the Communist Party to access the cadres and also a method for the Communist Party to purify the contingent of leading cadres in political movements.The second phase commences from the reform and opening up.The reform of cadres system which includes Deng Xiaoping's cadre rejuvenation policy gave rise to the first large-scale replacements of political elite.The reform continued in the second and third large-scale circulations of political elite.In this phase,omnipotent ideology transformed towards rationalization and secularization.And technology bureaucracy took the place of revolutionary political elite from totalism period.Although the political loyalty of political elite was still the basis of Leninism party government in this period,the role and function of political loyalty changed because of the adjustment of the emphasis of state construction and the transformation of political route.The regulating effect of political loyalty decreased and political loyalty was only a qualification for political elite.With the implementation of new policies after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the circulation of political elite steps into the third phase and political loyalty returns mightily.Through a series of measures that include the adjustment of ideology's utterance boundary,the reinterpretation of the meaning of political loyalty,inner-party periodic learning activities under the policy of being strict in Party discipline,and the increase of anti-corruption efforts etc.,the Party Central Committee has unified the thoughts of political elite and created an atmosphere of loyalty in a short time,providing strong internal supports to consolidate political authority and political legitimacy.Political loyalty switches between absolute idealism and instrumental rationality.This essay holds the opinion that the political loyalty of political elite is an important supplement to the institutionalization of the governance of the ruling party under contemporary political system.Although Chinese politics is on the way to institutionalization,there still exists the structural tension between the politicization and de-politicization of governance itself.As a result,political loyalty,which is a political representation,is an important political resource for the ruling party to build the contingent of political elite and maintain the steadiness of state power.