The First Generation Of Collective Leadership Of The Party Governing The Legality Of Building Awareness

The legitimacy of the political party in power is people's approval and support of the leading party. It is of great significance for the party's destiny and its prospective to strengthen the construction of legitimacy. Although the Communist Party of China doesn't use the concept of"legitimacy"explicitly, in fact she has already realized this question in power practices. At the beginning of power, the first generation of leading collectives of the party with Mao Zedong at its core had already started to explore this question.This paper reviews the exploration of the first generation of leading collectives of the party from the four following aspects:Firstly, the first generation of leading collectives of the party thought highly of the importance of ideology in the construction of power legitimacy. Therefore they paid much attention to the ideology work. In the early days of foundation, the party carried on a series of beneficial exploration. In the period of the socialist construction, the party made a lot of successes and also made some mistakes, leading directly to the Culture Revolution. In the Culture Revolution, the understanding of ideology entered into extremeness and expanded the function of ideology limitlessly. As a result, it didn't work to consolidate the legitimacy of the party but had the contrary effects.Secondly, the first generation of leading collectives of the party had awared of the great importance of economic performance in the construction of power legitimacy. In the early days of foundation, the party attached great importance to the recover and development of economy to be recognized by the mass. Though the party made the irritable adventurous mistake in the"advancing rashly"and"great leap forward"in the period of socialist construction, it also reflected the leaders'urgent hope to develop the economy. In the Culture Revolution, though Mao proposed to place the revolution in the center position to promote the economic development, the disordered state had bad impact on the national economy.Thirdly, the first leading collective of our party began to strengthen the construction of legitimacy in terms of legal principle. On the one hand, they realized that the acquisition of power should be legal. The Communist Party of China held the National People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress, made the Common Programme and the Constitution and in the end gained the legitimacy in power through the legal process. On the other hand, they realized the importance of implementing democracy and legal system in power. Therefore she made great efforts to pursue democracy in power and controlled political power according to law. Because of the limitations of the restriction of the historical condition and some leaders'understanding, democracy in power and ruling by law didn't come true.Finally, the first generation of leading collectives of the party paid close attention to the self-building of the party to the function in the construction of power legitimacy. They realized that the self-building of the party and the advance of the party were the precondition of gaining the power legitimacy. Thus, from the foundation to the Culture Revolution, the party paid much attention to the self-construction. The movement of Party consolidation, the movement against the three evils, the rectification movement even the Culture Revolution could be treated as the efforts made to consolidate the self-construction. However, the aim of some movements was good, but for some wrong methods, they did great harm to the party's self-construction.The above four aspects are all the foundation of legitimacy. The exploration of the first generation of leading collective in these aspects revealed that their understanding had arrived at some theoretical level. But because of the limitations of the restriction of the historical condition and one's own accomplishment, their understanding failed to reach the due level and so they made some mistakes. Their experience on this question is worth our learning and their lesson is worthy of reflection. Their experience and lesson is the valuable treasure for us to further explore.