7th prd 3/10

(i missed some of the very beginning, but heres hwere I can pick up)

-Communist party was the only politcal party allowed to opporate, only org that has various intersts on the politcal agenda. tries to pull it together to make policy.
-this monopoly on policy making is going to give us a rather artifical sense of the chinese gov't, being unified and constantly in harmony
-one of the difficulties here in watching china since there is no legitamite opposition, and b/c the mass media are controlled by the communist party gov't, we don't get to see disputs and conflicts in the chinese leadership very often
-when they announce a change we can assume at least that there was a debate within the party for it to be changed.
-When it comes to obstacles that a new party leader faces to try to gain apporval for his policies, the prohibition of oppoisition and what would keep them down, at a certain point, different views on policy do exist.
-within the party informal memebrs based on different factors shared opinions can work your relationships, hatred client type ties for a fairly strong since of ties between members of the party or political elite, but we don't often see that in public
Constitution

-only have one
political structure consists of two major org. heirarchys.
1. gov't or the state
2. chinese commi party
on the side sort of a 3rd peice but not fully equal, the peoples liberation army.
then spreading beyond party and gov't to include the army, we could go a step farther and acknowledge the mass organizations.
China does have a constitution.
-first one adopted in 1954. been revised a number of times
-current const from 1982
-unitary system of gov't with the central gov't of Bejing having the power
-accroding to the language of the 1982 constitution, peoples repulic of china, is offically governed by the national peoples congress, or NPC
-highest legislative instution of state or gov't power in the national level of china, this is their gov't this is their legislature.
-meets briefly in march
-over two thousand deputies, almost 3000
-choosen for five year term,
---meets once a year every year for those five years, in march
-Reason called a heirarchy, the national peoples congress is elected b peoples congresses at the probicial level and by the military.
-people only vote in local elections, in the legislature at the local level, factories, partner houses, villages, military units, there would be local people as congressmen, they would vote to choose a rep to go to the probitutal level of peoples congresses, in the lowest level people get to vote. but only voting for own leadership and then they choose from that to go up to the next level. who go to the probitutal level, and then reps are choosen for national congress.
-the national peoples congress is not the highest gov't or state power, that power belongs to chinese commi party
-it belongs to the24 member chinese commi party politburo, and even smaller, 9 member standing committee over the politiburo.
-the almost 300 members don't stay in session year around. national peoples congress have astronger body, so they have a stronger body called the standing committee,
-Standing committee has roughly 133 members
-acts for national peoples congress in the event that something comes up or congress is not in session.

-national peoples congress has some important functions: it chooses or electsthe president of the peoples republic of china, it elects the vice president of the peoples republic of china, it elects the chairman of the central military commision, it elects the president for bringing people to court, and it elects the chief procurator of the supreme peoples procuratorate.
--Also approves the nominateed primiers, vice primiers, minsters and commisioners and members of the central military commission, and they recall those officials as well.
-central military commission is probably similar to our chief of staff's secratary of defense.
^^legislative side of gov't

-Highest exectutive branch of organization spelled out in the constitution is called the State council
-State council includes: primier, vice primier and ministers
-state council's jobs are to translate commi party decisions into gov't laws or state decrees, and hold control over the go'vt over the beuro's at a lower level.
-so the primier is head of gov't in the system.
-the supreme peoples court is the judicial authority, but it is not an independant court, is resposible for its actions to the national peoples congress.
-supreme peoples procuratorate have something similar to the FBI and investigate people.
--ensure observace to the law
-the trick in china is that the rule of law is really secondary to the rule of the commi party
--have to obey party decrees as well as gov't laws.

-other major org. heirarchys of the chinese commi party
-chinese commi party has it's own constitution dating from 1982 and it sets out a commi party org roughly parallel to that of the state and so what they do is they position and form aparty org right along side most state or go'vt istitutions. so that way the commi party has knowlegdge of or can supervise activities.
-each level of the heirarchy side by side the commi party has the stronger voice.
-communist party congresses, they too have an NPC, is the national party congress
-way at the top
-NPC elects what is called the central committee of the commi party
-198 full members, 158 alternates. sort of like that standing committee.
central committee of the commi party acts for the national party comgress when congress not in session. that makes central committee probably the most important
-central committee important jobs are to choose the top leadership of the ocmmi party
-choose the politburo, the standing committee of hte politburo, the gneral secratart of the commi party, secratary of the commi party.
-organizational prinicple of the Chinese commi party is democratic centralism.
--the idea that the party is going to make policy, that policy is discussed top to bottom and a decision is made and everyone follows---doesn't work much better than it did in soviet union

-china has a different way of expressing demo centralism,
--to say that the individual subject ot the organization, the minority to the majority, the lower level sbordiniate to the higher level, and the entire party is subordinate to the central committee to the commi party, which means the politburo,
-make it clear that the politburo and standing committee are at the top

exectutive branch
-president of the peoples republic of china
-had exectutive as well as ceremonial head of state
-pres must be at least 45 years old
-serves five year term, twoterm limit
-just watched hu jing tao? choosen as leader in 2002, and then as president of nationals peoples congress in march 2003. now in second term
-common for the leader to not only be head of party, but to be pres and head of central military commission
-the election of hu jing tao continues a shift in china to younger peoples.
-does have a vice president
-very few official duties.
-vice president's name: hua jianmin
--he became vice in march 2003
-also limited to two five year terms

primier (PM)
-head of gov't
-five year term
-primier heads the state council, and state council functions like a cabnet in other systems, and has task of translating commi party decisions into state or gov't laws and seeing if they are implemented throughout the beuro's.
beuro's are large, state councils oversee about 45 ministries and commisions

legislature
-national peoples congress hold legislative power
-members are elected into five year terms by the poeples congresses and by the army
-meets once a year in march for five years
-currently 2987 deputites
-congress elects a standing committe --133 members--to acto for it in a supervised state council
-national peoples congress is largely a rubber stamp legislature which ratifies major documents that come in from commi party.
-usually pass things without much discussion
-important task of national peoples congress is electing the pres, vice pres, primier, approving various ministers, chairman of central military commission

beuro
-china has probably the worlds largest beuro
-sig. of beuro, beuro in china is a major and sig link between modern china and more ancient more traditiona china, back in the dynasties before mao and commis came into power, china had a large and respected beuro with official gov't reps in cities towns villages, all around.
-china's beuros for its day were highly educated, trained in the thoughts of confucious. taught to be honest, considerate of the people, and very different from the other beuro's out there today.
-ancient beuro was held in pretty high regard in all of china
-linkage of the past in china
-like all beuro's includes a variety of structures.
-state or gov't agenceies, commi party agencies, military beuro's, commi party has what they call primary units, smaller cells, apt house, schools, universities, and any other committee or element that the party might use to try to org the public.