Research On Grassroots Consultative Democracy In Sichuan Province Since The Reform And Opening Up

The yearning for democracy has always been the common pursuit of mankind.Marxism believes that democracy is a means to realize human liberation,and democratic politics is the ultimate destination of all state forms,which is the final form of the state.The realization of socialist democracy is manifested in the exercise of the democratic right as masters of the country by all the people through the National People’s Congress and local people’s congresses at all levels;on the other hand,it is manifested in the fact that different social groups living in different regions can participate in grassroots social affairs related to their vital interests through different forms,that is,the implementation of grassroots democracy and self-governance at the community level.Since the reform and opening up,in the development of socialist democratic politics with Chinese characteristics,the development of grassroots democracy has been both a bright spot and a key point.The systems of community-level selfgovernance has become one of the important contents of the socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics.Since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the party and the state have clearly proposed to improve the socialist consultative democratic system,promote the extensive,multi-layered,and institutionalized development of consultative democracy,build a consultative democratic system with reasonable procedures and complete links.Among these forms,the basic function is grassroots consultation,which is not only the most basic form of socialist consultative democracy,but also an important part of grassroots democracy,and an significant form for people to exercise democratic rights to participate in decision-making and management of public affairs at the grassroots level.Although the concept of grassroots consultative democracy was put forward relatively late,during the 40 years of the reform and opening up,grassroots consultative democracy has already emerged,existed and developed,and it has worked hand in glove with grassroots electoral democracy,playing an active role.Since the reform and opening up,the democratic political construction of Sichuan,an inland province in west China,has made great achievements,and was once hailed as the “China’s grassroots democratic experiment ground”.After years of exploration and development,the practice of grassroots consultative democracy in Sichuan,has not only effectively changed the democratic concepts of the grass roots and the governance of grassroots affairs,but also provided a research sample and observation perspective for the construction of China’s consultative democracy.This dissertation divides Sichuan Province’s grassroots consultative democracy into three periods.The first one is the initial stage of the reform and opening up.China’s grassroots society gradually established a system of community-level self-governance.During this period,the grassroots democratic practice was carried out based on democratic elections.While establishing and improving the system of self-governance by the grassroots masses,Sichuan Province not only explored democratic elections at grassroots level,but also set its sight on practices such as democratic decision-making,democratic management,and democratic supervision.Many consultative democratic elements emerged from these practices,which directly promoted the growth and development of grassroots consultative democracy.The second stage is after the 16 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the beginning of the new century,the introduction of Western consultative democracy and the self-governance system of the grassroots masses have become more and more mature.The development focus of grassroots democracy has gradually shifted,and one of the typical forms of grassroots consultation has emerged--Village Residents Council.The council has been fully developed in the practice of grassroots consultation in Sichuan.In addition,an open system,a democratic appraisal system,and participatory budgeting forms also emerged during this period,and were successively applied to the practice of grassroots consultative democracy,which have achieved good results.After the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the Party’s Central Committee made a comprehensive deployment of socialist consultative democracy,advocating to promote the construction of a wide-ranging and multilayered institutionalization of consultative democracy and to conduct consultations across the whole society.As a result,Sichuan province have successively launched grassroots democratic consultations marked by the direct leadership of the party committee,and have built a grassroots social consultation and dialogue system on the basis of the practice and exploration of the previous Village Residents Council as well as the consultation and discussion system.The standardized and institutionalized forms of consultation that started early across the country have formed the so-called “Chengdu Model”,dubbed by many scholars,in grassroots consultations.After the Third Plenary Session of the 18 th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,Sichuan Province,in accordance with the latest policies of the Party and the state on improving the governance of urban and rural communities,began to gradually explore the community-based grassroots consultation governance,marking a further step in exploration and development of the grassroots consultative democracy in Sichuan Province in the new era.By reviewing the development of grassroots democracy in Sichuan Province over the past 40 years of reform and opening up,sorting out and studying the specific practices of grassroots consultation democracy,exploring the basic context and basic reasons for the development of grassroots consultative democracy in China,and by comparing different ideas and philosophies as well as practices in grassroots consultation at home and abroad,it is shown that China’s grassroots consultation has a profound cultural,theoretical,practical and institutional foundation,which reinforces the fact that China’s consultative democracy is a form of democracy that is rooted in China with great vigor.Finally,the basic experience and enlightenment of the development of grassroots consultative democracy in China are summarized as below from the practical development of grassroots consultative democracy in Sichuan Province since the reform and opening up: the development of grassroots consultative democracy must adhere to the party’s leadership;be carried out after considering people’s livelihood;give full play to the subjective initiative of the people;improve the institutional design;strengthen the legal guarantees and technological support,so that it can further enhance the grassroots social governance ability in the new developing pattern,promote the modernization of national governance,and demonstrate the development model of consultative democracy with Chinese characteristics,thus contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to global social governance.