Cycles and Rhythms of Democracy in the People's Republic of China

After China's transformation into a global economic and political pole, political stability and the effectiveness of state power began to be highlighted among the sources of Chinese success, along with comparative economic advantages and favorable external conditions. The analysis of China's state institutions and their potential for improvement is especially important in the context of growing socio-political instability in the United States and Europe caused by interethnic conflicts, the migration crisis, contradictions between representatives of traditional and non-traditional identities and the general decline in the effectiveness of political institutions of Western democracies. The inter-party cooperation of the CPC and small democratic parties, the activities of the CPPCC, as well as the historical experience of “small” and “big democracy”, consultative democracy and mass public campaigns in the 1950–1980th, which have been preserved since the period of the revolutionary wars, play an important role in the formation of political institutions in modern China. After Xi Jinping was elected General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, a new stage of political development began in China. Along with the concentration of a significant amount of power in the hands of the leader of the party and the state, institutions of democratic participation of the population continue to develop. The fight against corruption and the establishment of the State Control Committee opened a new direction of political participation of the population, which is associated with the implementation of control functions. The concept of “whole-process democracy” is being formed as a new main direction of political development, contributing to the ideas of representative democracy.

whole-process democracy, control power, consultative democracy, CCP, political reform, “big democracy”, “small democracy”, “cultural revolution”