The book expounds on the role played by democracy in China's revolution and modernization led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), and how the CPC, in both its party building and state building, has constantly sought to leverage democracy's positive functions while avoiding its shortcomings.Special attention is paid to reconstructing and explaining the historical contexts from which the Party's theoretical innovations have emerged, thus offering readers insights into the inner political logic that has shaped China's development.The author, a member of the Party's senior policy panel, offers a perceptive analysis of the modernization of the country and its governing capacity, and provides a clear assessment of how democracy in China has developed with the times.Always bearing the big picture in mind, the author has not shied away from some of the more controversial parts of China's recent history, and his deep understanding of relevant Party documents and historical facts give strong support to his analyses. He concludes that that the Party is central to leading the nation to explore its path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and that the country has always emerged stronger after setbacks.

"The book expounds on the role played by democracy in China's revolution and modernization led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), and how the CPC, in both its party building and state building, has constantly sought to leverage democracy's positive functions while avoiding its shortcomings. Special attention is paid to reconstructing and explaining the historical contexts from which the Party's theoretical innovations have emerged, thus offering readers insights into the inner political logic that has shaped China's development. The author, a member of the Party's senior policy panel, offers a perceptive analysis of the modernization of the country and its governing capacity, and provides a clear assessment of how democracy in China has developed with the times. Always bearing the big picture in mind, the author has not shied away from some of the more controversial parts of China's recent history, and his deep understanding of relevant Party documents and historical facts give strong support to his analyses. He concludes that that the Party is central to leading the nation to explore its path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and that the country has always emerged stronger after setbacks"--

This book argues that democracy is the inevitable product of China's industrialization and modernization, and is necessary for the development of China's current society. It provides a political guarantee for China's industrialization and modernization. There are both similarities and differences between China's version of democracy and those versions of other countries. In this book, the author discusses the country's important experiences in constructing democracy with Chinese characteristics, which it has gathered during the long struggle for national independence, prosperity and social development. The democracy system embodies basic values and universal principles of democracy with uniquely Chinese characteristics.

Chinese democracy is collective democracy, argues Chi-yu Shih in Collective Democracy. Democratization in China does not purport to enhance individual human rights; rather, it aims to preserve and promote a sense of community. Democratization is both an assurance that no one will be left alone in the process of development and reform, and an attempt to avoid the building of self-centered boundaries by social members. Consequently, elections for people's deputies, officials, and village directors serve to consolidate the appearance of social consensus. In the nascent Chinese democracy, contends the author, the stress on human relations and the institutionalization of collective interests provide a potentially effective check on the historically familiar abuse of power.

Hu seeks to explain China's failure to establish a democratic system. He demonstrates both continuity and change in China's democratization process. Modern China regards power and wealth as primary goals and treats a strong state as a major means to these ends. Such a preference puts democracy on a back burner. Employing a theoretical framework which consists of five factors—historical legacies, local forces, the world system, socialist values, and economic development—Hu shows that, while all of these factors were at work in all eras, each assumes a special significance in a particular period. Traditional China before the 1911 Revolution attempted to adjust itself to a new, Western-dominated world. In the Republican era, the control of local forces topped the political agenda. Nationalist China sought to survive and develop in the world system, while Maoist China set for itself the task of building a socialist state. And, of course, economic development has been the priority of the Deng era. As Hu shows, these five factors have had determining impacts on the long struggle for democracy in China.

After several decades of reform and opening up, China has come to a critical period of transformation and development. How to improve the development strategies to effectively promote China's democratic politics has once again attracted the world's attention. This book compares the commons and differences between western and Chinese theories and practices of democracy model, and proposes a new democracy model for China's political reform — "cooperative-harmonious democracy". Absorbing the core values of democracy, this model draws on Chinese traditional "harmony and cooperation" and "people-oriented" thought, as well as modern cooperative game theory. More importantly, it adopts the new model to analyse some present practice cases in China, involving intra-party democracy, electoral democracy, and deliberative democracy. This book is a valuable theoretical innovation and a significant achievement in promoting the interdisciplinary research of political science and public management. It strategically reflects on how to promote the development of cooperative-harmonious democracy from the perspective of high-level design. The policy suggestions it proposed will be a valuable reference for policy-makers.

This volume is the first comprehensive study of China's “political civilization” since the term was introduced by then Party Secretary Jiang Zemin in 2002. Selected among about 200 papers delivered at an international conference in Beijing in 2004, this collection of ten essays discusses the relations between “political civilization” and political reform in China from the different perspectives of institution building, political culture, political theory, intra-party democracy, political participation, judiciary reform, legislative reform, and media reform. While the contributors are aware of the enormous difficulties China faces in reforming its political system and political culture, most are optimistic about the prospect of reform. Through theoretical discussions, the institutional analysis and other empirical methods in the book contribute to our understanding of Chinese politics in unique ways.

China's dramatic economic growth in the last two decades of the last century and the prospect of its rise as a great power in this new one have greatly increased its weight and importance in world affairs. Consequently the progress, or lack of progress, of China's transition to democracy has become a central concern of the international community. This timely collection brings together many well-known scholars to systematically explore China's current government and assess that transition toward democracy. The contributors seek to bridge the gap between normative theories of democracy and empirical studies of China's political development by providing a comprehensive overview of China's domestic history, economy, and public political ideologies. Overall the volume contends that Chinese culture and Confucianism are not the obstacles to democratic transition that some scholars have said they are, and that the success of market reforms has eroded authoritarian rule. This weakening does not guarantee a successful transition, however, and the contributors show that there are many reasons to be skeptical about the short-term prospects for democracy in China, including historical failures, the underdevelopment of civil society, political apathy, and competing social values. Though China's political culture is essentially neither anti-democratic not pro-democratic, it must still overcome many obstacles in order to achieve democracy.

A respected Chinese political philosopher calls for the Communist Party to take the lead in moving China along the path to democracy before it is too late. With Xi Jinping potentially set as president for life, China’s move toward political democracy may appear stalled. But Jiwei Ci argues that four decades of reform have created a mentality in the Chinese people that is just waiting for the political system to catch up, resulting in a disjunction between popular expectations and political realities. The inherent tensions in a largely democratic society without a democratic political system will trigger an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy, forcing the Communist Party to act or die. Two crises loom for the government. First is the waning of the Communist Party’s revolutionary legacy, which the party itself sees as a grave threat. Second is the fragility of the next leadership transition. No amount of economic success will compensate for the party’s legitimacy deficit when the time comes. The only effective response, Ci argues, will be an orderly transition to democracy. To that end, the Chinese government needs to start priming its citizens for democracy, preparing them for new civil rights and civic responsibilities. Embracing this pragmatic role offers the Communist Party a chance to survive. Its leaders therefore have good reason to initiate democratic change. Sure to challenge the Communist Party and stir debate, Democracy in China brings an original and important voice to an issue with far-reaching consequences for China and the world.

This book includes collective research by the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which is an important research institution of political science and a think-tank in China. The book was completed by the expert team of "China's Political System" headed by Director Fang Ning for several years and after several changes in their manuscripts. This book covers the core political systems of China, such as the leadership system of the Communist Party of China, the decision-making system of the Party and government in Chinese politics, the system of the people's congress, the relationship between the central and local authorities, the system of officials training and selection, the system of discipline inspection and supervision, the system of consultative democracy and the system of community-level self-governance, etc. This book aims to build a new paradigm of empirical research and introduction of the contemporary Chinese political system by using the description and research method of materialization and dynamics of the political system.