By Evandro Carvalho
Advancing whole-process people’s democracy and ensuring that the people run the country is one of the important focuses of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
China has made significant achievements in the continuous development of its whole-process people’s democracy, and built an effective model of democracy with Chinese characteristics.
The country has developed democracy in line with its national conditions and learned from the progress of other human civilizations. China’s effective whole-process people’s democracy, in turn, is also shedding light on the democratic development of other countries.
I was once a visiting scholar at Fudan University, where I studied China’s democratic practice in depth.
As the white paper titled “China: Democracy That Works” published in late 2021 said in its preamble, “Whole-process people’s democracy integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people’s democracy with the will of the state. It is a model of socialist democracy that covers all aspects of the democratic process and all sectors of society. It is a true democracy that works.”
In my opinion, this part well explains the distinct features of Chinese democracy.
China values both democratic decision-making and results-oriented democracy while pursuing whole-process people’s democracy.
In its democratic practice, the country always learns what the people want, what the government needs to do and whether the people are satisfied with the implementation of policies and measures.
Compared with that in other countries, China’s democratic practice better responds to the demands of the people. The remarkable progress that the country has achieved in its economic and social development is closely related to the effective operation of the Chinese democratic system.
Law-based governance concerns a country’s economic development, social stability and normal operation of the political system. While advancing democratic politics, China attaches high importance to promoting law-based governance.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has included comprehensively advancing law-based governance as a part of China’s Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy. The 19th CPC National Congress mapped out a blueprint that takes integrated steps to build a country, government, and society based on the rule of law by 2035.
The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China officially took effect on Jan. 1, 2021, which marked a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to advance the rule of law.
At present, China is working actively to advance legislation in key areas such as scientific innovation, public health and ecological civilization. The ceaseless efforts made by China to promote law-based governance has assisted the orderly operation of its democratic system.
Since the end of the Cold War, some countries duplicated Western models of democracy but found themselves trapped in development dilemmas, with emerging problems such as a wide wealth gap and increasing division in society. People’s demands for equity, justice, security and development were not satisfied.
Some countries ignored the rule of law while developing democracy, which led to abuse of power and other governance issues.
“There is nothing wrong with democracy per se. Some countries have encountered setbacks and crises in their quest for democracy only because their approach was wrong,” said the white paper “China: Democracy That Works.”
China has promoted democracy according to its own national conditions. It has achieved benign interaction among democratic development, political stability and social progress, inspiring other countries in pursuing democracy that suits their own national conditions.
(Evandro Carvalho is a professor with the Brazilian think tank Fundacao Getulio Vargas)
