Tell The Stories of Chinese Political Parties: The Construction of A Political Party Discourse System With Chinese Characteristics From A Comparative Perspective

1.It is necessary to construct a Chinese political party discourse system for the development of modernization

a.Constructing an iconic political party discourse system is the manifestation of theoretical self-confidence and self-consciousness.

General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has pointed out that in order to getting out of the situation of our voices having little weight in the international community, it is vital to be good at putting forward iconic concepts and creating new concepts and expressions that are easily comprehensible to the international community on which to guide the international academic circle to carry out research and discussions. For a long time, the discussions on the Chinese political party system in the Western academic circles have been placed under regional or country studies, thus forming a rigid theoretical framework and becoming an experiment product of the existing theories. It has been on the strategic agenda to have theoretical self-confidence and self-consciousness during the rejuvenation drive of the Chinese nation and the pursuit of the two centenary goals.

The task of constructing an iconic political party discourse is not only the result of the limitations of the explanatory power of Western theories on the complexity and particularity of the topic of China, but also thenecessity for a discourse system in the fields of thoughts, academics and culture corresponding to the economic and social strengths of China. That how to break through the discourse system framed by Western theories, and establish an iconic discourse system rooted in the national conditions of China to tell the stories of Chinese political party are important part of manifesting China’s theoretical confidence.

b.The special problems faced in the construction of the discourse system of the Chinese political party.

The risks, challenges and pressure that the Communist Party of China (CPC) faces are enormous considering that the CPC has more than 90 million Party members andgoverns a country with a population of 1.3 billion, while it needs to make efforts to maintain a comparative advantage in the international competitive landscape. It urgently needs a better role from philosophy and social science. However, it is especially difficult to build and innovate the Chinese political party discourse system, compared with the construction of that of other academic disciplines.

On the one hand, the CPC has established a unique organization form, institution traditions and its ruling mode in its long period of participating in revolution and ruling the country, which are strikingly different from the competitive system of Western political parties. So it is unreasonable to directly apply the Western political science theories, especially the ideology, in the interpretation of the theory of CPC.

On the other hand, the study of the Chinese political party system requires not only the policy explanation based on the theoretical publicity, but also theoretical analysis on the law of cause and effect. Currently, most studies and research results on the Chinese political party system focus more on the policy interpretation and argumentation, as well as incidental theoretical analysis on policy interpretation.

c.It is necessary to take into account both the Chinese context and from the comparative perspective in the construction of Chinese political party discourse.

China’s political party system is both general and specific, such as its special conditions, its institutional traditions, the Party size and ruling mechanism, and the challenges it faces. All these features of its specificity determine that it would be embarrassing to simply apply any one of the existing Western political party discourse systems in China, as it would be just like cutting a foot to make it fit in a shoe. The construction of a political party discourse system in the Chinese context is also an important reason behind the call for building theoretical self-confidence by the ruling party.

To enhance the theoretical self-confidence and self-consciousness of the CPC, it will be an important channel to establish a discourse platform for academic exchanges at home and abroad, and revise the existing discourse system, after reexamining the particularity of the Chinese political party system under the theoretical paradigm of comparing political parties.

2.The Chinese context in which to build the political party discourse with Chinese characteristics

Based on the special conditions of China and the growth process of the political party system, China’s political party system has its unique elements, which are embodied in its institutional traditions, the party size, the ruling mechanism and the governance environment.

a.The institutional traditions

Similar to many dominant political parties in the world, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was involved in the nation-building process of China, and has formed its own institutional system in the process of building andgoverning the country, and rectifying and governing the Party. The institutional system of the CPC includes the organization system, the cadre system, the supervision system and the publicity system, which have been formed during the revolution period and improved according to the real situation of the country, as well as referencing the communist party of former Soviet Union.

In addition, the CPC has not only accumulated a set of explicit institutional system, but also a spew of implicit political rules in the long process of revolution and governance. The political rules are not only embodied in the specific provisions of the Party’s rules and regulations, but also integrated in the Party’s fine traditions, work styles and practices.

b.The Party size.

The CPC has more than 90 million Party members within the 4.6 million grassroots organizations. It is one of the largest political parties in the world in terms of the numbers of itsorganizations and members. During the reform period, the number of CPC members increased significantly, and their social compositions also changed significantly.

According to the latest statistics, the CPC has become a political party with diverse social classes, as less than 35 percent of its members are workers and farmers. Compared to the other political parties in the world, the huge Party size and the complex membership of the CPC not only pose more challenges in the Party organization, but also higher requirements on the orientation of the CPC attributes.

c.The governance mechanism.

The CPC’s leadership over State power, and in economy and social development lies in a series of specific governance mechanisms, including the political decision-making system, i.e. the system of democratic centralism; the elite recruitment principle, i.e. the principle of the Party supervising the performance of officials; the comprehensive interest mechanism, i.e. the mass line; the value guidance mechanism, also known as ideology publicity; the social connection mechanism, i.e. the community-level organizations; and the Party and government coordination mechanism, i.e. the Party-government joint meetings, among others.

d.The governance environment.

TheParty faces a constantly changing ruling environment in the pattern of the one-long one-party governance and international system competition. The comparative party research shows that the risks of one-party ruling mainly lie in the decline in the perception of their own governance risks, resulting in the bureaucratic tendencies of Party cadres, and the alienation from the masses.

In addition, “If you can’t pass the internet, you will fail to rule in the long term.” With the emergence of an internet society in which people from all walks of life are online, that how to rebuild communication channels of mainstream discourse in the internet era and enhance the influence of political publicity is also an important environment the CPC faces.

3.Constructing a party discourse system with Chinese characteristics in comparison

The CPC has a history of 100 years with 72 years in power. The Party has never stopped further improving its self-construction, strengthening its ruling base and enhancing its governing capability in the long-term political practice. The discourse refinement and theoretical construction based on the long-term political practice is not only an important step to elaborate on the leadership and governance performance, but also a major breakthrough in the comparative party political research.

a.The political party system and the new-type party system.

It’s been a traditional way to classify the party system in the world in accordance to the number of existing parties in a country, i.e. the one-party system, the two-party system and the multi-party system. The new-type party system is a transcendence of the traditional Western party system theory, especially the determination of a party system solely by the number of the ruling parties. The new-type party system clearly shows that the classification of the Western party system is not applicable in the determination of the Chinese party system. China will not follow the footstep of the Western party politics. The ruling CPC has established a party cooperation paradigm with Chinese characteristics with eight other democratic parties through political consultation and dialog.

This pattern breaks through the Western model of the political party system determined by the number of votes obtained in an election and the organization of a cabinet government.It is also a new interpretation and theoretical expression on the Chinese party system.

b.National centrism and party centrism.

It has been analyzed in the state centrism theory the state vacuum caused by denationalization of thebehavioral politics and the misuse of the concept of the political system. The theory emphasizes the necessity of “recovering the state” and returning the state power. Samuel P. Huntington strongly advocated the importance of strong political parties in maintaining the political stability in the modernization process. Many other comparative politics scholars also emphasize the value of the one-party system for maintaining the stability and sustainability of the political system.

The party centrism in the Chinese context is anexpansion and revision of the state centrism theory in the Chinese context. The CPC is not only a ruling party highly integrated with the State power, but also a leading party closely connected with the mass. It is also a party with mission and a clear sense of purpose.

c.Party institutionalization and the theory of system-ruled party.

The institutionalization of political parties introduces the concept of new institutionalism for the study of party politics. It goes beyond the simple textual norms, organization system andstructural framework, and focuses on issues such as values and attitudes, the interaction between the system and the environment, as well as the main body and changes of the system. The system-ruled party is an institutionalized political system with Chinese characteristics. To govern a country, the party must be governed first, and the party must be governed strictly and there must be laws to be strict with.

It is important to focus on two aspects in studying the party institutionalization in the Chinese context. Firstly, pay more attention to the normal operation of the organization in regard with the institutional standardization; and secondly, establish a party culture that encourages obeying and respecting the system in regard to value attitude.

d.Party adaptability and the theory of governance risk.

Partyadaptability, as pointed out by comparative politics scholars such as Steven Levisky, refers to the ability of a political party to achieve its “primary goal” through a process during which the party makes adjustments to its organization and strategies corresponding to the external environment, especially the electoral and economic environments, to obtain more material resources and political support.

As a universal concept, party adaptability tells us that no political parties should be conceited and self-satisfied, or take measures without considering changes in circumstances. Instead, the parties must reform themselves responsive to changes of the external environment. The theory of governance risk is active party adaptability.

From a comparative perspective, the primary problem faced by the ruling party in the long-term one-party ruling system is the ability to adjust itself. In the Chinese context, the adaptability of the CPC is embodied in the dual tasks of actively creating an environment and passively adapting to the environment, and the social and political changes it pushes forward.

With the strengthening of China’s comprehensive power, the construction of a discourse system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics has been up in the agenda. The requirement of constructing a discourse system for the study of Chinese issues lies in both the central authority’s proposal on theoretical self-confidence and cultural confidence, and the emphasis on Chinese characteristics of philosophy and social sciences studies.

It is important to balance the relationship between academic studies and Chinese context in the innovation of a political party discourse system with Chinese characteristics. It is important that the discourse innovation of the Chinese political party system will serve knowledge production and the needs of the party through academic supply. It must form an academic concept that conforms to discipline norms based on the standpoint of knowledge production, which can be used for discussion and application in the academic community; and it must also be based on the party politics of China, to build a discourse system with universal explanatory power from the Chinese context.