From China Elections and Governance:
Why should we develop grassroots democracy? If we carefully observe changes taking places in China’s grassroots society, especially of the new pattern emerging in the grassroots organizations, we should be able to see that developing grassroots democracy is actually a practical requirement resulting from the profound transformations of the grassroots organizations.
Prior to reform and opening up, all organizations in the Chinese society were directly established or directly led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Their power came from the CPC authorization. Though there were also different kinds of organizations at the time, all of them operated under the control of the power center, which is the CPC. However, the circumstance today has greatly changed. The number of all forms of organizations has been increasing day-by-day, and these organizations’ interests and power sources are more diversified. The Party’ old way of pushing around these organizations indiscriminately is no longer effective. Under this circumstance, how the Party leads and how different organizations interact with each other need rules and regulations. This requires developing the rule of law, and democracy is a fundamental choice for realizing rule of law in China. [Full Text]
Zhao Shukai, a Researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, is Deputy Secretary-General of China Development Research Foundation. The original is available here.
