The Government Under The Rule Of Law: Objective Of Construction Of The Chinese Government

Rule by law is an ancient but new topic of human society. It was started fromthe thought of rule by law of ancient Greece and Rome, profoundly influencingthe political concepts and systems of human society and it has become the topicfull of vigor in some fields such as politics and science of law, etc. up to now. Theprocess of democracy and rule by law simultaneously started with the economicreform has gone through the development for30years, ruling of the country bylaw, guarantee of human rights and property right protection have beensuccessively incorporated into the Constitution, autonomy by farmers andautonomy by the social community have been successively started, somesystems of judicial investigation, information publicity and administrativeaccountability, etc. in the administration and rule by law have been establishedand implemented and the development of democracy and rule by law of Chinahas become clear day by day. In March,2004, the State Council printed andissued the Outline for Promoting Law-based Administration in an All-round Way,presenting the “objective of basically realizing the construction of thegovernment under the rule of law with the unremitting efforts for about a decade”,which symbolizes the important breakthrough point of implementing the strategyof ruling the country by law and promoting the development of democraticpolitics and the construction of the government under the rule of law has beenofficially incorporated into the agenda and entered the phase of detailedimplementation. 1. Analysis of the connotation of the government under the rule of law. Aftersummarizing and analyzing the origin of the thought of rule by law and thedifferences between the legal concepts of China and the west, the thesispresents the understanding and grasping of the connotation of the rule by lawfrom the relations between right, democracy and rule by law and makes clear astandpoint or perspective of understanding the rule by law. Right, democracyand rule by law, as three pivots of the modern politics, are interdependent andsupporting each other. The government under the rule of law, that is, thegovernment with legality includes the senses of orientation at three levels:legality of system, legality of being in power and legality of behavior. The legalityof system also means the legitimacy of politics, that is, whether the principles forestablishing the government meet the requirement of legitimacy or not, which isthe basic standard for defining the government under the rule of law; the legalityof being in power refers to whether a specific person or political organization hasobtained the status of being in power and public office according to thepredetermined rules; the legality of behavior refers to whether the governance ofthe government meets the provisions of laws or not, that is, conformity to law,which mainly belongs to the category of the science of administrative law. In thethree meanings of legality of the government under the rule of law, the legality ofsystem is decisive. Only the government which meets the standard of legality ofsystem can be called the government under the rule of law.2. Generating conditions for the government under the rule of law. Thegenerating conditions for the government under the rule of law refer to thefactors playing the decisive or restricting role in the establishment and effectiveoperation of the government under the rule of law. The stable democraticpolitical system is the premise for the system of the government under the rule oflaw. In the modern constitutional principle, both democracy and rule by law arethe constituents of the constitutional government. Among them, democracy is ofprerequisite. In the principle that the rights are reserved, the occurrence ofarbitrary rights is prevented and the platform for participation and consultation for compromising and balancing of the different interests is provided. The maturemarket economy is the economic foundation for the government under the ruleof law, and the market economy produces the rule of law and should depend onthe rule of law. The rational citizen’s culture is the cultural deposit of thegovernment under the rule of law. If the objective of being a government underthe rule of law is achieved, there shall be the citizen’s culture coordinating with it.Culture is adaptable to the system and both of them are the important conditionsfor the stable and benign operation of democracy and rule of law. The orderlysocial autonomy is the social support for the government under the rule of law.The developed and strong citizen’s society is the true foundation and decisivefactor for people to get rid of political shackles, realize the political emancipationand enjoy human rights, freedom and democracy.3. Development process of the Chinese government under the rule of law.The founding of the Republic of China is different from any change of dynastiesin the past and it is the upgrading from the imperial autocracy to a constitutionalrepublic; the new political system of a democratic republic was directly taken,fundamental changes occurred to the form and contents and its founding hasstarted the new era of the history of China. Kuomintang founded the militarydictatorship integrating the party and the country. The Communist Party of Chinastrove for democracy, overthrew the ruling of Kuomintang and founded thePeople’s Republic of China. The “Cultural Revolution” brought the collapse of therule by law and disastrous consequences. Since the reform and opening to theoutside, the construction of democracy and rule by law has been flourished andthe socialist legal system with the Chinese characteristics and the Constitutionas the core has been basically established.4. Path of building the Chinese government under the rule of law. Coherethe common sense of democracy. The universal identity of democratic values isthe important psychological element for founding and good operation of thegovernment under the rule of law. Carry out the citizen’s education. The purposeof the citizen’s education is to cultivate the eligible members of a democratic society with some qualities such as autonomous awareness, independentthinking, public sense of responsibility, self-discipline and introspection, respectand conclusiveness, etc. Promote the social autonomy. The expansion of thescope of social autonomy and strengthening of the functions of social autonomyis the necessary requirement for building the government under the rule of law.Expand the democratic experiment. Guaranteed by the selection system with thecomplete laws, clear rules and just procedure, the scope of democratic selectionshould be expanded and the development of democratic politics should bepromoted.