Criteria for a Democratic and Effective National Political System: A Comparison of Democratic Political Systems in China and the United States

ABSTRACT

Democracy should not be only a matter of form, but should be genuine and workable. This article makes a comprehensive comparison between the political systems in China and the United States, using Chinese President Xi Jinping’s eight “whether to do” and four “depending on” criteria in order to judge whether each country’s political system is democratic and effective. The people’s democracy in China has always been based on the principle that the people must be at its center. Bringing to realization the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people is always regarded as the starting point and guarantee of democratic construction, and the people’s democratic right to be masters of the country is ensured through the establishing of a set of institutional systems. This approach determines fully that the socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics is real, effective and workable. The United States is a country based on “elite democracy” and the nature and mode of democracy there often turns into an alliance of, or competition between, parties and capitalist interests. This is a democracy in which politicians and capitalist oligarchs manipulate public opinion for their special purposes, a situation that amounts in essence to a takeover of sovereignty by oligarchic monopolies.

KEYWORDS:

• People’s democracy of socialism
• democratic system
• democratic politics
• China
• the United States

Acknowledgements

This article was translated by Associate Professor Yexia Sun at the School of Marxism, Northeast Normal University, China.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The composition of the representatives of the 13th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China may be taken as an example: as of the end of January 2018, a total of 2,980 representatives of the 13th National People’s Congress had been elected nationwide. Among the elected representatives, there are 438 representatives of ethnic minorities, accounting for 14.70% of the total number of representatives, and 55 ethnic minorities across the country have their own representatives. There are 39 representatives of returned overseas Chinese. There are 769 re-elected representatives, accounting for 25.81% of the total number, and 742 women representatives, accounting for 24.90% of the total. There are 468 representatives of front-line workers and farmers (including 45 representatives of migrant workers), accounting for 15.70% of the total number of representatives. There are 613 representatives of professional and technical personnel, accounting for 20.57% of the total number of representatives. There are 1011 representatives of leading political cadres, accounting for 33.93% of the total number of representatives. Quoted from Report of the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on the Election of representatives to the 13th National People’s Congress, February 24, 2018. (see http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/201802/e99f27464e86456b91829d162187bce6.shtml).

2 The study of identity politics is a hotspot in Western Politics, Economics, Sociology and Psychology. However, just as the celebrated English Marxist scholar Eric Hobsbawm has pointed out,

The political project of the Left is universalist: it is for all human beings. . . . identity politics is essentially not for everybody but for the members of a specific group only. . . .

That is why the Left cannot base itself on identity politics. It has a wider agenda. (Hobsbawm 2017)

It is clear that the identity politics promoted by the rule class of the United States could only lead to fragmentation of the mass and their basic interests, not to real extensive participation in a “should-be” democracy.

3 The serious shortcomings of the US political system and governance capabilities have led to weak government leadership. According to a poll conducted by Gallup on January 2–22, 2023, 21% of Americans rank “the government/poor leadership” as the top problem facing the country, more than twice the number of Americans that say the same for “the economy in general” (10%), despite inflation has emptied the pockets of the American people (see “Americans Think Country’s Biggest Problem Is the Government Itself, Poll Finds,” https://newleftreview.org/issues/i217/articles/eric-hobsbawm-identity-politics-and-the-left).

4 According to Edelman Trust Barometer 2022, in a poll of 36,000 respondents from 28 major countries, including China, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Nigeria, the trust rating for China was 83%, ranking first in the world. The United States, on the other hand, was trusted by only 43% of the public, ranking it alongside the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan and Germany as countries the people do not trust. The trust of Chinese people in their government was the highest in the world at 91%, while Americans’ trust in their own government was only 39% (see https://www.agilex.ca/documents/voccc/1617.pdf).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Enfu Cheng

Enfu Cheng is Chief Expert at the Center for Innovative Marxist Studies, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Chief Professor of the School of Marxism, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Shaoyong Sun

Shaoyong Sun is Director of the Center for Innovative Marxist Studies, and Professor of the School of Marxism, Northwestern Polytechnical University.