Petition System Under The Ties Between The Party Perspective Study

The system of Letters and Visits is a unique political system designed by CPC. It is an important component of the democratic system with Chinese characteristics. It plays an irreplaceable role for the ruling Party to strengthen the Party-people tie, make democratic consultation and dialogue with the masses more effectively, and helping understanding the public opinions more directly. At the same time, it plays an effectively and timely complementary role for other political istitutions to relieve, manage and resolve the contradictions among the people properly, and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the masses effectively. It is an important channel for the Party and government to strengthen the links between the masses. In this paper, the author uses the methods of dialectical materialism and historical materialism to give a longitudinal study of history on the emergence and development of the system of Letters and Visits, from the perspective of enhancing governance capability of the Party, consolidating and extending the Party's ruling base and Party-people tie. Especially the author gives the countermeasures to perfect the system of Letters and Visits to improve the Party-people relationship, based on the analysis of current situation of this system, previous development, as well as its impact on Party-people relationship.In preface, the author expounds the significance of this thesis, and summarizes the existing research achievements, then presents the structure, method, innovations and difficulties of this paper.In the first chapter, the theoretical framework is formed: the author explains the meaning of Letters and Visits and its system, then concludes that understanding, expressing and realizing the public opinion are the basic requirement of enhancing the affinity between the ruling Party and the masses. There are many ways to meet this requirement, in which the system of Letters and Visits plays a significant part. As a political system with Chinese characteristics, the essential function of the system of Letters and Visits is to guarantee the input of people and output of the Party and the government, which is delivery and realization of the public opinion. All in all, the system of Letters and Visits at heart is an important systematic design for forging closer tie between the Party and the people.In the second chapter, the author gives an analysis on the history of the system of Letters and Visits: making a systematic study on the development of the system of Letters and Visits from the perspective of party-people relationship. During the revolutionary war, there was the embryonic form of this system. By receiving letters and visiting, the relation between the Party and the people was enhanced. From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the"Cultural Revolution", the system of Letters and Visits gradually formed and developed, and played an important role in mobilizing the people and safeguarding their rights and interests. Then in the days of"Cultural Revolution", the system was distorted and came to a standstill, as a result, it made little contribution to the party-people relationship then. After the"Cultural Revolution", the system of Letters and Visits got renewed and developed, and played an inreplaceable role in redressing individual injustices, settling historical problems, being a main channel to a closer party-people relationship.In the third chapter, the author gives analysis on the current situation: from the perspective of tie between the Party and the people, the paper describes the status quo of the system of Letters and Visits since reform and opening-up, especially the problems and challenges in this area. Since reform and opening-up, following the profound changes in our economic system, there have been great changes and adjustments in social structure, the pattern of interests and people's ideas. Contradictions formed before mostly emerged through the channel of Letters and Visits. Under such circumstances, the system of Letters and Visits, once being effective, ran short of ways in dealing with the situation. On the one hand, the system of Letters and Visits still acts as a"safety valve in society"or"contradictions mediation device"which makes some contributions to ensure the rights and interests of the people and maintain a closer party-people relationship. On the other hand, the system of Letters and Visits suffers an institutional crisis, undergoes various defects, and even becomes a cause of contradictions in party-people and cadre-people relations.In the fourth chapter, the author analyzes the causation why the system of Letters and Visits falls into crisis from both the macro and the micro level: first, in the period of social transformation, the contradictions among the people break out in greater density and intensity. The expressing and realizing of the people's opinion and the solving of the social contradictions become major questions which the ruling Party has to face. Because of the lack of effective means to resolve contradictions and the inappropriate understanding of the system of Letters and Visits, lots of conflicts goes into this channel, so the system of Letters and Visits carries just too much social responsibility. Second, the system itself has deficiencies and shortcomings. Third, the system lacks effective institutional underpinnings.In the fifth chapter, the author gives countermeasures in this part, according to problems and challenges faced by the system of Letters and Visits and its causations. Three aspects included: first, to make clear the purpose of the reform of the system of Letters and Visits is to safeguard legal rights and interests of the people, thus further intensifying the Party-people relationship in order to further consolidate the ruling bases of the Party. Second, to make clear the direction of the reform of the system of Letters and Visits is rule of law and standardization. Third, to design the approaches and scheme of the reform of the system of Letters and Visits, things must be done to reduce contradictions at root, minimize the occurrence of letter-writing and visiting, reform the system itself, and integrate Letters and Visits with other related institutions, etc.In the conclusion part, the author sets forth the prospects for improving the party-people relationship based on rule of law. The function of civil relief of the system of Letters and Visits may be weakened under the continuous process of rule of law in China. However, it is sure that there is still room to form a closer party-people tie by improving and reforming the system of Letters and Visits with a focus on making clear the regulations and restrictions of its status, functions, operational scope and approach.