CCP VS Democracy Flashcards
INTRO impt
Although still authoritarian, the government is no longer totalitarian in either its views or practices. It generally seeks to entice, rather than order the population to do its bidding. This requires that the authorities seek to understand popular desires through listening to the disgruntled citizens and to structure incentives accordingly. Whereas under Mao the political system dominated society, the Deng-era and subsequent reforms have brought a conscious reduction in the state’s tight control of social and economic activity. Through the restructuring of political power and policy-making mechanisms, China’s leaders now assume that their citizens have individual interests and will act on them, leading to more interest-driven politics instead of the Maoist notion of an organically unified society. Some of these changes are critical to China’s transition toward democratic governance and I will argue that (1) NPC (2) National bureaucracy (3) Political participation of citizens
NPC
The NPC has become progressively more autonomous, initiating legislation and actively reviewing and altering the proposals for legislation presented to it.
NPC comprehensive legal underpinnings
evidence suggests that it has stalled initiatives desired by leading party officials. The NPC, a body significant in drafting and revising major laws, has brought the PRC from a state in which virtually no law existed until Mao’s death to a country that in many areas has relatively comprehensive legal underpinnings. These efforts have centered on providing greater regularity and predictability for the democratic legitimacy of China on the global stage.
NPC decision making power
Deng also let the people’s congress share the decision-making power. As such, the party committee and the people’s congress coexisted as two decision-making organs and exercised a double oversight of the government. This allows more alternative voices to be represented politically
NPC veto policy proposals
local people’s congresses have become more defiant and often veto policy proposals or nominations of chief government officials made by local party committees. The government hence is responsible for its work performance to both the people’s congress and the party committee. This allows alternative voices to voice their grievances.
“separation of the party from the government (dang zheng fen kai).”
The government was to be structured as a real executive organ to be responsible for policy implementation. The function of the party committee was limited to, but not entirely control (local) policy-making.
MAX WEBER
This SEPARATION of responsibilities and spheres of authority is argued by MAX WEBER as the definitive characteristics of the modern state, which has an inextricable relationship with democratisation.
Provinces counties constantly lobby the Center for resources
The post-Mao reform efforts depend heavily on a cooperative relationship with the provinces. This is evident where the Center stimulates the provinces to take major initiatives to improve their own economies and to experiment new approaches to advance the country’s economic growth.
TIANJIAN SHI’S Political Participation in Beijing (1999)
According to Shi, Chinese participate at the local and work-unit levels in a variety of ways. These include voting, assisting candidates in local-level elections, and lobbying unit leaders
THE ADMINISTRATIVE LITIGATION ACT OF 1989
allows citizens to sue government agencies for alleged violations of government policy. Party and government agencies maintain offices for citizen complaints—letters-and-visits departments (xinfangju) for citizen compliants. These channels of demand and complaint making encourage individuals to pursue grievances and serves as a feedback loop to ensure democratic accountability.
2008 Organic Law of Village Committees
clarifies a definition for all forms of vote- rigging and penalties for vote-lobbyists and bribe-receivers
