Toward an Incremental Democracy and Governance: Chinese Theories and Assessment Criteria

CHAPTER NINE

TOWARD AN INCREMENTAL DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE: CHINESE THEORIES AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Introduction

Any political discourse is bound by the political era in which it takes place. This is especially true in China, which has witnessed many political movements since 1949. Prevailing political terms are replaced by newer ones as an older political era gives way to a newer one. From 1949 to 1978, the most popular terms included “revolution,” “dictatorship” and “class struggle,” but their popularity has waned since 1978. Instead, new terms like “reform,” “rule of law” and “stability” have since become well known. The term “democracy,” however, is an excep- tion to the vagaries of political fashion. Most Chinese scholars hold that democracy is a foreign word, and that “there was neither democracy nor science in traditional Chinese culture.”1 Nevertheless “democracy” is always on the list of popular terms in modern Chinese political his- tory, regardless of the ruler or the regime. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used democracy as a basis of legitimacy for overthrowing the Guomindang (GMD) regime in the years leading up to 1949. Mao Zedong, the CCP’s senior leader, even wrote a pamphlet entitled “New Democracy.” “Democracy” remained one of the most effective slogans after the CCP came to power in 1949 and even during the “Cultural Revolution,” though it was never actually implemented. China’s politics and economy have undergone fundamental changes since the reform and opening up process began in 1978, and all formerly popular political terms have all but vanished—except for “democracy.” There is no doubt that both the Chinese understanding and practice of democracy are undergoing great changes, but the term remains unchanged.

1 Li Shenzhi, “Neither Democracy Nor Science in Traditional Chinese Culture,” in: Selections On Liberation (1978–1998), ed. by Qiushi, Beijing, Jingjiribao Chubanshe, 1998, p. 1118. 252 chapter nine

Chinese Concepts of Democracy during the Mao Era

In the era of Mao Zedong, like other political terms, the concept of democracy was not open to discussion and was used exclusively by the authorities in a specifi c way. The only offi cial view of democracy in that context was as follows: democracy was a superstructure built upon an economic foundation; in the fi nal analysis, it was not an ultimate value and goal, but rather a means to achieve economic goals, and it therefore served economic development; all democracies in human his- tory were by nature class democracies, for classless democracy does not exist. To date, there had been only two types of democracy: socialist and capitalist. Socialist democracy was the highest form of democracy while the capitalist version was false; democracy and dictatorship were complementary, in that democracy for the proletariat and dictatorship for the bourgeoisie were two sides of the same coin. As Mao wrote, “The combination of these two aspects, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.”2 Democracy and centralization were combined into “democratic centralism,” that is, centralization based on democracy, and democracy under centralized guidance. Such “democratic centralism” has been an underlying principle of both the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China.3 There are many defects in such a view of democracy. First of all, it is an instrumentalist view that regards democracy as a means to attain economic goals, not as one of ultimate human value, so that democracy is devaluated to the status of a simple instrument for human beings. As a result, democracy becomes inessential in practical politics. Furthermore, according to this instrumentalist view, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the enemy are indivisible. However with no legally prescribed way to differentiate between the people and the enemy, identifying the people and the enemy depended on the will of

2 Mao Zedong, “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship,” in: Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 3, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 1475. 3 The General Provisions of The Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party stipulate that “we should abide by democratic centralism. This combines centralization on the basis of democracy and democracy under centralized guidance.” Article 3 of the General Provisions of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that “the state organs of the People’s Republic of China should exercise democratic centralism.”