Chapter 34 Clarify democratic goals and give historical promises

Democracy is an old problem.Now some people advocate changing the "one-party system" into a "multi-party system", with the "intellectual class" as the main members of the "bureaucracy", "establishing capital autonomy through market mechanisms and the rule of law with the protection of private property rights at its core", and This implements "power checks and balances" and "freedom of speech, publication and academics." What is your comment on this? First of all, as I said earlier, in the 21st century, with the advancement of the scientific revolution, electronic network democracy will impact political parties and their democratic politics.Therefore, it is an outdated idea to advocate copying Western multi-party democracy in China.China's multi-party democracy is only a tail end of catching up with the old party political democracy. Not to mention it may be impossible, but assuming it is possible, it will take at least one or two generations to establish it and perfect it. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation Historic opportunities may be lost.At least half the effort, it's not worth it.This issue will not be discussed in detail.The construction of China's democratic politics should still rely on the leadership of the Communist Party of China.Therefore, it is more practical to talk about the construction of democracy within the Communist Party.

Democracy is not exclusive to capitalism.As early as the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, Deng Xiaoping proposed: "Democracy must be institutionalized and legalized." Deng Xiaoping also said that without democracy, there would be no socialism, and that socialism and democracy are an inseparable whole.On the one hand, the Chinese now enjoy freedom and democracy unprecedented in history. On the other hand, socialist democracy is still far from perfect, which is mainly reflected in the lack of institutionalization and legalization.In the development of democratic politics in China, the first thing is to carry out the construction of inner-party democracy.Only a fully democratic party can drive social democracy.At that time, I worked in the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. I founded and hosted the "Bimonthly Theoretical Symposium", inviting senior figures and representatives of the Shanghai intellectual circle to have dialogues with the main leaders of the Municipal Party Committee on issues such as reform and opening up, advocating debates with different viewpoints, and letting leaders Hearing and hearing is the first step to democracy.

Deng Xiaoping made it very clear that, first, we must realize democracy, and second, we do not engage in the Western parliamentary democracy with separation of powers and multi-party system.That is to say, we must proceed from China's reality and engage in socialist democratic politics with Chinese characteristics.This is of course more difficult than imitating Western democracy, but it is also the only correct and feasible path.Of course it is easy to copy, but from Sun Yat-sen to Mao Zedong's era, the Chinese "leaved" to the Soviet Union, did they suffer a small loss?The national conditions are different, the stages of development are different, and the cultural traditions are different. Copying will inevitably mess up the society, but will fail to achieve the goal.I have always advocated that the goal is firm, but one generation can only do the work of one generation based on reality.Transcendence is irrational.

I think the most important and most urgent thing in selecting outstanding cadres is to establish a scientific and democratic mechanism.To pass the election of the party committee, several people should be selected as candidates for the secretary. The party committee can also recommend them, and party members can also recommend them. Then the candidates must publish their policy outline, what are the main problems they are currently facing, and what problems they promise to solve this term. How to solve it, and then conduct a secret ballot, a vote in which the minority obeys the majority.Implement real democratic elections!

The reform I am talking about is to reform the inner-party election system, improve the candidate nomination system and election methods, promote the combination of members of the leadership team of grassroots party organizations being publicly recommended by party members and the masses and recommended by higher-level party organizations, and gradually expand grassroots party organizations. Organize the scope of direct elections for leading groups, and explore various forms of grassroots democracy within the party.There are some things that cannot be done at the top of the party for a while, but can be done at the grassroots level.Some people are indeed worried about whether there will be factions and how it will end. But I said, if our party members and cadres cannot establish the party for the public and vote for the interests of the party and the country, then is there any hope for the party?

It is still possible to implement democratic elections in the election of grassroots party committees and party branches, because everyone understands each other and information is symmetrical. Through democratic elections that fully guarantee the freedom and rights of party members, good people with both ability and political integrity can be selected, and villains and bad people can be elected. choose out.If all villains and bad guys are stopped from the grassroots level, our party will be purer and more effective. This requires a process. What do you think is more feasible at present? I think there are two, one is to clarify the vision and goals, give historical promises, and tell everyone what socialist democratic politics looks like. What is feasible is that inner-party democracy should be perfected first, and many outstanding talents in China are in the party, so they are inherently operable.

At present, it is true that we are first experimenting with inner-party democracy and first with grassroots democracy. But the action can be accelerated. The first thing is to improve the quality of the party representatives and ensure that the representatives have a considerable level and rational judgment ability.If you choose an illiterate representative just because he is a model worker or a good farmer, this is not acceptable.Deputies who do not have sufficient political choice ability are to give living space to vote for leaders who engage in personality cults, and to give space to "fudge" leaders by sycophants, and there can be no real democracy.

If our generation can reform this point well and do it well, it will be great.The cadres of the Communist Party are all excellent, and the country has great hope.On this basis, the next generation will continue to push democracy a step further, without stopping from generation to generation, and quantitative changes will produce qualitative leaps.A democratic mechanism with Chinese characteristics will make greater contributions to mankind. Thank you for your patience in listening to my talk all afternoon.It's not strict, but the main points have been discussed.Trouble for you to organize.Fortunately, I published a "Liu Ji Anthology" not long ago, which can be used as a reference.

I should be thankful. You have given me a lot of inspiration, but time is limited, and many points of view have not been fully developed. I hope to have time to listen to your further explanation. That's no problem, you're welcome!