The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is a programmatic document guiding China to further comprehensively deepen reform in the new journey. In order to better understand and grasp the "seven focuses" reform goals put forward in the Decision, Xinhuanet Sike launched a series of "Interpretation of the Spirit of the Third Plenary Session by Party School Experts" to deeply explore the spiritual essence and reform requirements of further comprehensive deepening reform. The "Decision" proposes to focus on developing people’s democracy in the whole process. Song Xiongwei, a professor in the Department of Politics and Law Teaching and Research of the Central Party School (National School of Administration), made an in-depth analysis of this.
On December 14, 2021, at a polling station in Yingfeng Village, Tuankou Town, Lin ‘an District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, villagers were voting, and village-level monitoring liaison officers were monitoring the votes. Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Yushe
Xinhuanet Thinker: The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session emphasizes the need to focus on the development of people’s democracy in the whole process. How to understand the connotation of "people’s democracy in the whole process" under the background of the new era?
Song Xiongwei:The whole process of people’s democracy is a great creation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) uniting and leading the people to pursue, develop and realize democracy, and it is one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization led by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The whole process of people’s democracy is based on China’s historical practice, which provides a theoretical logic completely different from "liberal democracy". It is rooted in China’s traditional culture, closely linked to the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s essential attributes, embodied in the pursuit of democratic human common values, and integrates various forms of electoral democracy and deliberative democracy.
The whole process of people’s democracy is based on the new historical position, which provides a value concept and institutional arrangement for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to formulate policies and strategies according to the situation, meet the expectations of the broad masses of the people, realize the unity of the party’s ideas, the will of the state and the will of the people, and give full play to the people’s initiative.
"Whole process" refers to the whole process of people’s democracy in China, which not only has a complete system and procedure, but also has a complete participation in practice. It is a full-chain, all-round and full-coverage democracy. Throughout the process, people’s democracy has always adhered to the organic unity of the party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country and governing the country according to law, which is the crystallization of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s experience in continuously promoting China’s democratic theory innovation, system innovation and practice innovation.
Xinhuanet Thinker: What is the significance of developing people’s democracy in the whole process for promoting Chinese modernization?
Song Xiongwei:Modernization is not an isolated development process of a certain field of society, but an overall change process including social economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization and other fields, among which there is a relationship of interdependence, mutual adaptation and mutual promotion among all fields. Without high-quality democratic politics, there will be no socialist modernization power.
Contact point of grassroots legislation in Dexi Street, Bijie Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee, Guizhou Province (photo taken on March 21, 2023). Xinhua News Agency photo, provided by Bijie Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee.
People first is the fundamental value of Chinese modernization. To promote and expand Chinese-style modernization, we must uphold the people’s dominant position and effectively ensure that the people are masters of their own affairs. The whole process of people’s democracy has provided a strong guarantee for our people to be masters of their own affairs with complete institutional procedures and complete participation in practice, and provided a solid support for the achievements of modernization to benefit all the people more and more fairly. Developing people’s democracy in the whole process means supporting and guaranteeing the people to be masters of their own affairs, enabling all people to exercise state power through democratic systems in various fields and democratic channels at all levels, making all aspects of the country’s political and social life reflect the people’s wishes and hear their voices, making modernization better respond to people’s demands and needs, and realizing people’s yearning for a better life.
Therefore, to build a socialist modern power in an all-round way, we must build high-quality socialist democratic politics. Only high-quality socialist democratic politics can provide institutional support and value guidance for building a socialist modern power in an all-round way.
Xinhuanet Thinker: How to understand the effective protection of people’s democracy in the whole process with the institutional system?
Song Xiongwei:To guarantee and develop people’s democracy in the whole process with the institutional system, we must unswervingly adhere to and keep pace with the times to improve China’s fundamental political system, basic political system and important political system, further improve the institutionalization, standardization and procedural level of people’s democracy in the whole process, better transform institutional advantages into governance efficiency, and comprehensively promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.
The people’s congress system is the fundamental political system of our country. China’s Constitution stipulates that all power in People’s Republic of China (PRC) belongs to the people; The organs where the people exercise state power are the National People’s Congress and local people’s congresses at various levels. The people’s congress system is a fundamental political system arrangement that adheres to the organic unity of the party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country and governing the country according to law, and ensures that the party leads the people to effectively govern the country according to law.
The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the basic political system of our country, a great political creation of the people of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China, democratic parties and personages without party affiliation, and a new political party system growing from the soil of China. The system of regional ethnic autonomy is China’s basic political system, an important content and institutional guarantee of the correct way to solve ethnic problems with China characteristics, and plays an important role in safeguarding the unity and territorial integrity of the motherland, strengthening ethnic equality and unity, promoting the development of ethnic areas, enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation, and casting a solid sense of the Chinese nation community. Grass-roots mass autonomy system is the basic political system of our country. Under the leadership of the Party, the people’s self-management, self-service, self-education and self-supervision in urban and rural community governance, grass-roots public affairs and public welfare undertakings have directly exercised their democratic rights according to law, which has become an important embodiment of people’s democracy in the whole process.
China’s important political systems mainly include the electoral system, the special administrative region system, the legislative system, and the organization system of state institutions, which are derived from the fundamental political system and the basic political system.
Practice has fully proved that the whole process of people’s democratic system can effectively guarantee people to enjoy broader and more substantial rights and freedoms and ensure people’s extensive participation in state governance and social governance; It can effectively regulate national political relations, develop dynamic political party relations, ethnic relations, religious relations, class relations and compatriots at home and abroad, enhance national cohesion, and form a stable and United political situation; Can concentrate on doing great things, effectively promote the liberation and development of social productive forces, promote the cause of modernization, and promote the continuous improvement of people’s quality of life and level; It can effectively safeguard national independence, vigorously safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, and safeguard the well-being of the people of China and the Chinese nation.
Xinhuanet Thinker: How to understand the organic unity of the party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country and governing the country according to law?
Song Xiongwei:First of all, the leadership of the Party is the fundamental guarantee for the people to be masters of the country and to govern the country according to law. Being masters of the country is the essential feature of socialist democratic politics, and governing the country according to law is the basic way for the party to lead the people to govern the country. The three are unified in the great practice of socialist democratic politics in China. In the political life of our country, the Party is in a leading position. Without the strong leadership of the party, it is impossible to mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the broad masses of the people, and it is impossible to form a unified will. Not only is it impossible to develop socialist democracy, but it is bound to be a fragmented and even turbulent situation.
Second, the people are the masters of the country, which is the essential feature of socialist democracy. In China, the people are the masters of the country, which is reflected in all aspects of the country’s political, economic and social life, and is implemented in various institutional arrangements such as the people’s congress system, the multi-party cooperation and political consultation system led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), the regional ethnic autonomy system, and the grass-roots mass autonomy system. Governing the country according to law is the basic way for the party to lead the people to govern the country.
Third, the essence of governing the country according to law is to govern the country and manage social affairs in accordance with the Constitution and laws. Under the leadership of the Party, the people formulate the Constitution and laws through the National People’s Congress, the highest organ of state power, and use them to govern the country and manage social affairs, so as to ensure the realization of the people’s democratic right to be masters of their own affairs.
On June 19th, 2020, the residents’ representatives of Yonglian Village, Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province made a democratic agreement on community environmental improvement in the village chamber. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Lei photo
Xinhuanet Thinker: The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session proposed to improve the working mechanism of absorbing public opinion and pooling people’s wisdom. For the grassroots, what can be done to promote the masses to better express public opinion and democracy?
Song Xiongwei:The more extensive the people’s democratic participation practice is, the more fully their wishes are expressed, and the more real the realization of people being masters of their own affairs will be. It is necessary to further improve the platform and carrier of democratic public opinion expression of the National People’s Congress and ensure that all work of the National People’s Congress is based on solid public opinion. Give full play to the role of deputies to the National People’s Congress, support and guarantee deputies to the National People’s Congress to perform their duties according to law, and improve the working methods such as discussion, demonstration, consultation, hearing and earnest talk. Coordinate and promote political party consultation, people’s congress consultation, government consultation, CPPCC consultation, people’s organizations consultation, grassroots consultation and social organization consultation, improve various institutionalized consultation platforms, further improve proposals, meetings, publicity, consultation, internet and other democratic consultation methods to broaden the channels for reflecting social conditions and public opinion, and promote the institutionalized development of deliberative democracy. Fully understand the interests and true wishes of the people.
Improve the system and work system of direct democracy at the grass-roots level, and enhance the effectiveness of self-management, self-service, self-education and self-supervision of the masses in urban and rural communities. We will improve the system of openness in handling affairs, broaden the channels for grassroots groups to participate in grassroots governance in an orderly manner, and ensure that people manage grassroots public affairs and public welfare undertakings according to law. We should explore the system of soliciting people’s suggestions, voting system for deputies to people’s livelihood projects, and meeting system for street deputies, so that the whole process of people’s democracy can show more vigor and vitality on the land of China.