Commentary by Li Feng
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Over the past decades, the CPPCC has played a significant role in promoting sound decision-making in China, bringing together wisdom from various sectors, both within and outside the Communist Party of China (CPC)
Consultative democracy is a form, and the strength of, socialist democracy, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a special consultative body and an important channel for promoting socialist consultative democracy, which in turn promotes whole-process people’s democracy.
In its resolution on “Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization”, the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China vowed to advance whole-process people’s democracy and introduce measures to improve the mechanisms for consultative democracy.
First, consultative democracy plays a significant role in public policy formulation and implementation. Theoretically, making consultation a part of the public policymaking process will increase administrative costs. But mistakes and repetitive efforts can be avoided, and making scientific decisions will become easier if all stakeholders’ opinions and needs are taken into consideration in the beginning.
A practical, socialist consultative democracy can facilitate innovative decision-making. Consultative democracy follows the principle of conducting consultations before and during policymaking. Consultations help policymakers to better understand the needs and opinions of different groups of people, reduce social conflicts and build social consensuses. Consultations can also help policymakers reach the greatest common ground based on the wishes and needs of the people, modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity in the process.
Socialist consultative democracy stresses that since citizens are affected by public policies, they have the right to participate in the decision-making process. Their participation in the process allows groups with different interests to voice their opinions and give their suggestions, so as to help the policymakers make better informed and balanced decisions.
Second, socialist consultative democracy with Chinese characteristics in the new era pursues self-improvement to build a virtuous circle of a sound system design, technological innovation and effective governance, and integrate the whole-process democratic mechanism and high-efficiency governance tools.
For example, socialist consultative democracy can meet the needs of cyber-politics and introduce new technologies in public works. The Party and the government adhere to a people-centric philosophy, put people first, and introduce innovative technologies such as online governance service platforms, “internet+e-government” and online surveys to promote consultative democracy in the realm of cyberspace.
Third, socialist consultative democracy reflects the feasibility, effectiveness and efficiency of whole-process people’s democracy, and can help solve many real-life problems, and more effectively and efficiently transmit and collect information.
In fact, socialist consultative democracy is a manifestation of whole-process people’s democracy. It facilitates consultations among political parties, different levels of people’s congresses, government departments, and different committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and social organizations. China practices whole-process people’s democracy through a combination of elections, consultations, decision-making, management and oversight, that is, it covers all aspects of democracy and sectors of society. And that is precisely why it is people-centric and effective.
This institutionalized arrangement of socialist consultative democracy ensures orderly consultations while making the consultation results public. Consultative democracy has a unique advantage and function in the development of whole-process people’s democracy, not least because it upholds the Party leadership, ensures law-based governance, and follows socialism with Chinese characteristics.
This form of democracy can help meet the people’s need to lead a better life, by pursuing common prosperity, promoting high-quality economic development, and helping build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful.
Therefore, more efforts should be made to strengthen the Party’s leadership in the consultation process, because the Party’s leadership is the most essential attribute of socialism with Chinese characteristics and a guarantee for the development of socialist consultative democracy.
So it is essential to improve the mechanism of consultative democracy and facilitate consultations among political parties, and people’s congresses and the CPPCC at different levels, and ensure the consultations are more efficient and result-oriented, as well as introduce rules and policies to provide an institutional guarantee for the development of socialist consultative democracy.
*The author is an associate professor of politics and law at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. The views don’t necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
– Courtesy of China Daily
