Historical Evolution and Practical Exploration of the Ideology of the Whole-process People’s Democracy of the Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China(CPC) has gone through four historic stages in advancing the whole-process people’s democracy. Firstly, during the New Democratic Revolution, the Party initially explored the goals and methods of people’s democracy. During socialist revolution and reconstruction, the Party then established the institutional framework and procedures of people’s democracy. In the years of reform, opening up and socialist modernization after 1978, the Party put place in legal protection for people’s democracy so as to improve the institutions, standards, and procedures of people’s democracy. In the new era following the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, the Party further improved the system of whole-process people’s democracy. Its theoretical framework is multi-dimensional, covering the strategic significance, fundamental guarantee, core values, defining features, operational mechanisms, political strengths, governance effectiveness, and evaluation systems of whole-process people’s democracy. The fundamental experience includes the following key points: we emphasize the unity of the Party’s leadership, the people’s status as masters of the country, and law-based governance of the country as the prerequisite; we give top priority to refine the institutional framework that ensures the people’s role as masters of the country; adhering to the democratic centralist system is the fundamental principle; leveraging the role of leading cadres as the “key few” is an important measure; and integrating whole-process people’s democracy into the entire journey of Chinese modernization is the core demand. In the new era and on the new journey, it is imperative to innovate the mechanisms and systems that transform the institutional strengths of whole-process people’s democracy into governance effectiveness. We must enhance the democratic literacy and capabilities of the subjects of whole-process people’s democracy, improve the new mechanisms of digitalization, intelligentization and informatization for whole-process people’s democracy, and elevate its international discourse power.