The Institutionalization Evolution Of The CPC’s Anti-corruption

In the past 100 years,the Communist Party of China has successfully overcome the erosion of the traditional social particularism values that paid attention to the interests of individuals,families,clans,friends and other small groups during the revolutionary period,the erosion of power from taking over the national power after the founding of new China,and the challenges of opening up and market economy after the reform and opening up,especially the great increase of corruption in the process of the transformation from the old systems and mechanisms to the new ones.How is this achieved? Many scholars believe that before 1978,anti-corruption mainly depended on the mass movement,and after 1978,it mainly relied on the system.But what this view ignores is that before the reform and opening up,there were not only mass movements against corruption,but also a large number of laws,regulations and institutional mechanisms,the establishment of anti-corruption institutions such as the Commission for Discipline Inspectionand the Supervision Commission,and the gradual establishment of the authority,rules and procedures for punishing corruption.Moreover,the mass movements were directly initiated and organized by the CPC Central Committee,and all were carried out step by step with control under the leadership of the Party except the cultural revolution.There is a link of system construction in the mass movement,and the treatment of those who violate discipline and law is also carried out by specialized agencies.In the anti-corruption practice after the reform and opening up,except for the mass movement,most of the institutional rules,procedures and institutions have continued the institutional framework established in the early days of the founding of new China and the revolutionary period.The anti-corruption practice before and after the reform and opening up is defined as the dichotomy of campaign anti-corruption and system anti-corruption,which separates the historical relationship between the two periods,and ignores the anti-corruption system and mechanism established by the CPC in the revolutionary period,which is the logical starting point and practical basis of anti-corruption after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.On the basis of reviewing the history of the CPC,this paper points out that the reason why the CPC can resist corruption and prevent change is that it is a highly institutionalized Marxist Leninist Party.Since its establishment,it has paid attention to the institutionalized way of resisting corruption.At the same time,although it has experienced twists and turns,it has dealt well with the problems of institutionalization and mass participation.It can be said that institutionalization is the main line of the CPC to resist corruption.The revolutionary period is the initial exploration period of the CPC’s anti-corruptioninstitutionalization,which established the principle framework of giving priority to ideological Party building,democratic centralism,mass line and so on.Under the framework of these principles,the CPC established the policy of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and curing the sickness to save the patient" through Yan’an Rectification Movement,established the idea of managing the Party and running the Party from the ideological and style problems for preventingthem from evolving into corruption problems,so that Party members and cadres can change the concept and characteristics from the traditional agricultural society,accept the Marxist universal values of the supremacy of public interests,and consciously do not want to corruption.Moreover,it established the cadre line of“appointing people on the basis of merit”,set up a special cadre selection organization,combined the top-down leadership inspection with the bottom-up mass inspection,and curbed corruption from the source of selecting and employing people.It also tightened the system of building the Party’s grass-roots organizations,set up special anti-corruption organizations,strictly implemented Party discipline,corrected Party members’ minor mistakes in time,and eliminated corrupt elements in the ranks of Party members,so that most Party members neither dare to corrupt nor be able to corrupt.What is more,through the democratic politics of workers,peasants and soldiers in Jinggangshan and the practice of clean government in the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia border region government,the CPC explored the institutionalized way of mass participation and democratic supervision,and initially combined the top-down inner-Party supervision with the bottom-up mass supervision.The early period of the founding of new China is the deepening exploration period of the CPC’s anti-corruptioninstitutionalization.In view of the fact that the phenomenon of corruption has increased greatly since taking power in China,the CPC has deepenedthe Yan’an Rectification Movement by combining the Rectification Movement with the implementation of discipline,the rectification of cadres,the clean-up of organizations,and the fight against corruption;successively established anti-corruption agencies such as the Discipline Inspection Commission and the Supervisory Commission,whose organizational structure,scope of responsibilities,leadership system,working rules and procedures have provided a basisframework for the restoration and reconstruction of Discipline Inspection Commission after 1978.The systems of People’s Congress andpeople’s Letters and Visits provide institutionalized ways for the masses to supervise and participate in anti-corruption.However,as for the corruption within the Party,especially thehidden corruption such as bureaucracy caused by the bureaucratic management system,there are more and more divergences among the central leadership on whether the anti-corruption is mainly based on top-down institutionalization or bottom-up mass participation.The tension between the institutionalization of anti-corruption and mass participation is gradually highlighted.The socialist education movement has become a watershed between the institutionalization and anti institutionalization of mass participation.The new period of reform and opening up brings the recovery and development of the CPC’s anti-corruptioninstitutionalization.The CPC has brought anti-corruption back into the track of institutionalization,explored the path of anti-corruption without mass movement,standardized the scale and quantity of mass participation,and relied more on the Party and state system,especially the specialized agencies to fight corruption from top to bottom.Among them,in 1983,the Party established a top-down rectification model;built a system and mechanism for preventing and controlling corruption through the reform of the Party and state leadership system and leadership institutions,the reform of the personnel system for cadres such as the national civil service system,the reform of economic fields such as the price reform and the financial management reform,as well as the standardization of the Party and government organs and the conduct of Party and government cadres in doing business and running enterprises;established a system of basic anti-corruption laws and regulations through three main tasks by the reconstructed Discipline Inspection Commission,five basic authorities,a dual leadership system,a joint office system of the Discipline Inspection Commission and the Supervision Commission;promoted the punishment of corruption on the track of legalization through emphasis on distinguishing between disciplinary and legal issues in the trial of "two cases" and the crackdown on criminal activities in the economic field and exploration of strengthening the connection between Party discipline and national law in terms of ideas,rules and procedures.However,with the rapid improvement of the institutionalized level of anti-corruption,the mass participation is gradually marginalized,and the connection between the civil anti-corruption and the institutionalized anti-corruption system is not smooth enough.Not only the difficulty of corruption control is increasing,but the tension between the Party committee and the government and the civil society also appears from time to time.Since the 18 th CPC National Congress,it is an accelerated period for the anti-corruption institutionalization.In response to the challenges of poor system implementation and the spread of corruption,the CPC takes the construction of system implementation as a breakthrough point,adhering to the unity of system improvement and system implementation,of ideological Party building and system governance,of law-based Party and government,of inner-Party supervision and mass supervision,the strong rectification of the atmosphere,the strict enforcement of discipline and anti-corruption,and the overall and strict governance of the Party,so as to implement the Party’s discipline,the regulation of the work style construction and the laws and regulations on the punishment of corruption,which are benefit for effectively safeguarding the authority of the system,curbing the spread of corruption,and wining an overwhelming victory in the fight against corruption.At the same time,through unblocking the complaint reporting mechanism of the masses,building a supervision mode that combines online exposure of the masses,fermentation of public opinion,and investigation by law enforcement departments,through inspection that combines top-down organizational supervision with bottom-up supervision of the masses,and in particular,making it clear that inner-party supervision is the leading role and combining with mass supervision and other kinds of supervision,through building the supervision system of the Party and the state and gradually straightening out the relationship between the institutionalization of anti-corruption and mass participation,great progress has been made in broadening the ways of mass institutionalization and integrating mass supervision into the institutionalization of anti-corruption.Looking back on the course of resisting corruptionin the past century,it can be found that the CPC has made a lot of historical experience in the institutionalization of ideological education,organizational structure,punishment of corruption,power supervision and so on.In the new journey,we must inherit these valuable experiences,adhere to and improve the institutionalization of ideological education,control and rectify the Party step by step from top to bottom under the leadership of the Party,and combine ideological education with rectifying cadres,implementing discipline and building organizations,so that the process of ideological Party building becomes the process of institutional Party governance and the process of institutional Party governance becomes the process of ideological Party building.We should improve the institutionalization of organizations,appoint people on their merits,strengthen the construction of grass-roots organizations,and strengthen the anti-corruption specialized agencies;we should adhere to and improve the institutionalization of corruption punishment,combine the formulation and implementation of the system,punish corruption in accordance with the rules and discipline,and take severe punishment of corruption as the support and backing of education and system;We should adhere to and improve the institutionalization of power supervision,combine the top-down inner-party supervision with the bottom-up mass supervision,take the inner-Party supervision as the leading role,broaden the institutionalized channels of mass participation,let the people participate in the supervision of the power and let the power run in the sunshine,so as to lay a solid foundation for the CPC to resist the erosion of various corruption factors and be in power for a long time.