… Developing party options that we already discussed with political parties. Political party system in China is relatively simple. The Communist Party is the only political party allowed. And consequently, it’s the only organization in china that tries to take the various interests of the people, interests that are on the political agenda and pull them together to make policy. So the monopoly of policy making by the communist party often gives a rather incorrect or artificial appearance of unity or harmony. In the leadership. And since there is no legit opposition, and since the media is controlled by the party leadership conflicts in china only become obvious in China when the current leadership is displaced by new or the party announces a rather abrupt change in policy direction. Otherwise we don’t really know what arguments are going on behind the scene. But we know that the leadership argues enough that they do differ with themselves and they can work it out. So factionalism within the highest levels of the communist party can be an obstacle that a party leader faces when trying to gain approval for policies. I’ve been careful to say in class when we’ve talked about changes in major leadership, that usually in the first party congress the new leaders find that the politburo members in support of the old party leadership are replaced and the new leader gains political power in the politburo and that situation where a new party leader comes in becomes precedent. In the politburo it means they’re really making policy or pushing for be totally supported, so in their first years the new leadership has to be somewhat careful and win people over or move to get them replaced. Although the ((something)) of opposition can open challenge is the basic rule of the game, differing views on policy do exist. And again, particularly on the politburo and more particularly in China on the standing committee of the politburo. And of course informal networks based on any number of factors, mutual support, shared opinion, patron-client networks will form some ties amongst the elites in the politics. It’s a one-party system keeping in mind that there are differences within the party. We said it in the US way back last fall, and I’ve mentioned a couple of times since, it is tough for a small number of political parties to represent a large, complex population. And as China has diversified, it’s gotten tougher and tougher for the party to speak for everyone and we get more behind the scenes disagreement in the politburo and I said the same point, that it’s hard for the democratic party and the republican party of this country to really truly represent half the populations, or whatever percentage.
We shift to the constitution in China. China’s political structure consists of two organizations hierarchies. One is the state, or the government. Local government, provincial government, right up to national government and the other is the Chinese Communist Party which has low level units (in factories, apartment houses, villages) right on up to national levels. And then there’s a third element in China and that’s the People’s Liberation Army. And then to a lesser extent, the mass organizations that the party and government put together.
Of the first constitution for the People’s Republic of China adopted in 1954 and they did new constitutions in ’75, ’78, ’82, not significant, ’82 to the best of my knowledge is the most recent constitution, which sets out a unitary system of government, with a central government having the power. According got the 1982 constitution, the People’s republic of China is officially governed by the national people’s congress. This is the government side, not the party. National people’s congress or the NPC. It is the highest legislative institution of state power at the national level. It has over 2000 deputies. ((Student question)) The Chinese legislature is a very easy job. You get on the legislature, you go to Beijing and meet for a week, ten days, once a year. The party hands you bills that need to be passed into law, and you say, okay! And they’re rubber stamped and the rest of the time, you celebrate the party. Whereas in the country our legislators relax and party all year round. The NPC, the legislature meets every year for a five year term, once a year. Provincial level congresses and army units elect the congress. If we do the NPC, if we do the legislature and ignore that, cause I’ve used this for both the people and the government, but the legislature we’re talking about, low level army units, factories, villages, apartment houses, people get to vote in local elections, I just want to make that clear. You only vote in local elections. Above this level and to make it a shorter story. The provincial level is for the provinces. These low levels will elect a member to elect someone to represent them at the next level. And there will be many of these in congress at this level. These will choose a rep, and they will vote for the national congress. It’s a step system. So, government legislature NPC is elected by provincial level congresses and army units, now in practice, the NPC is not the highest, or most powerful institution of state power. The highest, most powerful, belongs to the communist party And in particular is belongs to the roughly 24 members of the communist party politburo and even more particularly to the roughly nine member standing committee of the politburo, of the communist party. Now, that’s the legislature. The NPC has a smaller body that’s the standing committee. Don’t often get to see the members, last number I have is 130 members. When the NPC is not in session, the standing committee of 130 people will act for it. They do have a smaller body to call into session if they need it. Keep the appearances of government being independent of the party. That would be the party having a policy they need implemented now, and activating the standing committee so they can rubber stamp it. Now, some important tasks though, the NPC elects the president of the PRoC and elects the vice president, it elects a chairman of the central military commission, it elected a president of the Supreme People’s Court, and it chooses the chief procurator of the Supreme People Procurator ate. So legislature chooses five people. Some of these people can be the same. Legislature approves the nominated premier, vice premier, ministers and commissioners, and the members of the central military commissions, and theoretically it may recall these officials as well. The central military commission similar to our joint chief of staff, plus our secretary of defense. The highest executive branch organization in this government is called the State Council. Includes the premier, vice-premier, and the ministers. The state councils task is to translate the communist party decisions into state or government decree or law and to hold control over the government and what it does at all levels. So in this system the premier is the head of government. The president is head of state. The supreme people’s court is the judicial authority, but it is not an independent court and it is responsible to the NPC or it’s decisions. The supreme people’s procuratorate is a supervisory and investigative body with the job of insuring that the constitution and national laws are obeyed and carried out. But in China the rule of law is secondary to the rule of the communist party. The public must obey the communist party decrees and officials as well as government laws and state officials. And if the system is working smoothly, those are consistent as systems. If they are not working smoothly they may be separate, in which case you must be careful.
The second major hierarchy is the Chinese communist party, and like the government, it has a constitution dating form 1982. And it sets out a party organizations that parallels that of the government. So we have some form of party organization alongside almost all of the government institutions. They have a completely separate constitution. They are separate, and dated the same, updated at the same time, but they are independent. By positioning some form of communist party organization alongside most of the government organization then the communist party has a close knowledge of and can supervise the activities of the government and at each level the communist party is going to have the more authoritative voice. The communist party congress members are elected by the congresses immediately below them, so a hierarchy very much like the government one. Ordinary communist party members choose their representatives only at the local level. Now the national party congress (careful! National people’s congress and national party congress have the same initials) NPartyC over 2000 members, elects the central committee of the Chinese communist party. The central committee acts for the NPartyC and is probably the most important representative body in China. It’s got a 198 full members and 158 alternate members, in case something happens to one of the primary members. The committee most important job is choosing the top leadership, choosing the members of the politburo and the standing committee of the politburo. Choosing the general secretary of the communist party and choosing the secretariat of the communist party. The organizational principle of the Chinese Communist Party is democratic centralism. Same term we use with the Soviet. And probably somewhere along the line I said, I don’t know if this term is still in the exam or not, but the last released exam for comparative, which is only two years old question on democratic centralism. It’s alive and well in China and may not be alive and well in Russia. Democratic centralism was the idea that the policies would be discussed top to bottom in the parties and decision made and everyone would carry it out. According to the communist party constitution the individual is subject to the organizations, the majority subject to the minority, the lower level subordinates to the higher level and the entire communist party is subordinate to the party central committee which really means, in practice, that it’s subordinate to the politburo.
We’re moving to the executive branch. There is a certain amount of duplication here. The president of the PRC is the executive and ceremonial head of state. President must be at least 45 years old, and today serves a five year term with a two term limit. Hu chosen as party leader at the national Party Congress in Nov. 2002 Then chosen as president by national people’s congress march 2003. He replaced Jaing Zemin. Jaing Zemin was chosen president in 1993 and ’98, so every five years. ((Question on recycling presidents. G doesn’t think so.)) Hu is also head of the central military commission so he holds party, state, and military leadership posts. Hu’s election was a continuation of a trend or shift to younger technocrats taking the presidency. China does have a vice-president, has very few duties. Current vice-president is Hua Jian Min. He becomes VP in march 2003 same time. That Hu was put into office. VP also limited to two, five year terms. This Premier is the head of govt. Wen was selected in 2003 to replace ((name)). The premier serves a five year term. Wen was the only candidate on the ballot at the time. Which makes it easy. The premier heads the state council which functions sort of like a cabinet in other systems and has the task of translating communist party decisions into state laws and decrees that then get implemented through the many layers of the Chinese bureaucracy. The state council, the cabinet=like organization, oversees 45 bureaucratic ministries and commissions and so the bureaucratic organization is pretty good sized. If we look at the legislative branch the NPeople’sC hold the legislative power. The people are elected for five year terms on the Congress by the army and provincial congresses. Meets once a year in early march for five years, when they have elections again. There are currently 2987 deputies. The legislature elects a standing committee, smaller numbers around 133 to act for it and supervise the state council. The NPeople’sC is mostly a rubber stamp legislature which ratifies major reports and documents submitted to is by the communist party. The task of the NPeople’sC is choosing the president, vice president, approving the premier, the ministers, and choosing the chairman of the central military committee and the procurate.
Bureaucracy, China probably has the world’s largest bureaucracy. The Chinese bureaucracy is a major link between modern China and ancient or traditional China. Ancient China had a bureaucracy that was highly trained in Confuciusism, the teachings of Confucius. Stressed a highly competent bureaucracy that was not in any way corrupt. Of course this changed over time. The bureaucracy of today includes a variety of structures, as you can imagine government or state agencies, communist party agencies, the military bureaucracies, and their various agencies and subagancies. The bureaucracy manages the communist party’s local members and includes the structures that the government uses when it tries to mobilize the population on some major piece of policy initiative.
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