These are quite dynamic times for democracy--as theory, institution, and system. What had once been a term whose contours and applications appeared to converge around global certainties has encountered, in this new era of national and international relations, challenges from a number of quite distinct sources. Though much attention has been paid to the specific challenges within the structures of Western liberal democracies, Marxist Leninist political communities have also encountered the challenges of democracy within their own political systems.
It is with that in mind that we have organized an event hosted at Penn State University on 12 February 2019 that may be of interest to those who study democracy in action and the theories around which those actions are grounded.
The event, Marxist-Leninism 2.0: China's Socialist Democracy brings together scholars from Europe, the United States, and China to consider recent developments in Chinese democratic theory and practice from a national and comparative perspective. The core object of participants will be to seek to extract the fundamental theory and characteristics of the emerging systems, and to point to the likely paths to further development.
The event Concept Note follows. Updated Event information may be accessed HERE. This event, together with Popular Participation, Representation, and Constitutional Reform in Cuba (see here), are the two parts of a one day international conference: Marxist-Leninism 2.0: Theory and Practice of Emerging Socialist Democracy in China and Cuba, about which more information here.
Pennsylvania State University
12 February 2018
Lewis Katz Building
University Park
Sponsored by the
Coalition for Peace & Ethics, the Foundation for Law and International
Affairs, Penn State Law and School of International Affairs. Funding
provided in part by the Penn State University Park Allocation Committee.
Conference Concept Note
These
are turbulent times for democratic theory.
In the West, intellectuals worry about the continued viability of
democratic republican systems in their current form. These worries have been augmented as the
strategic behaviors of important actors have begun to push against the borders
of democratic structures as well as by a perceived popular malaise expressed
through the ordinary channels of democratic participation. The stresses affect
democratic governance in a variety of ways. Populism is one label that Western
influence leaders use to identify stresses on the processes of mass
participation in government, principally through elections. Deep state is what
others reference as the portion of the government of states that appear
insulated from mass politics. Legalism is what is referenced as the diversion
of political discourse within domestic legal orders and their resolution by
judicial rather than political bodies. The
response to these stresses remain tentative and in the earliest stages of
development. The political order is being remade according to rules that are
emerging and not clear, or as yet easy to understand. And yet it is clear that what
will emerge from these sometimes tumultuous conversations will produce a new
approach both to the theory and practice of democratic governance in the West
to suit the new era of Western development in its many forms, a Liberal Democracy
2.0. At its core, these discussions touch on the continued development of stable
structures that maintain robust and legitimate relations between individuals
and the government that serves them, while elaborating systems of
accountability and monitoring to suit the times.
China
has also been deeply engaged in this global conversation about the shape and
character of contextually legitimate but stable systems that express the core democratic
foundation of the state and its government. Chinese leaders have recognized,
probably more consciously and directly than their counterparts in the Western,
that states and political communities worldwide appear to have moved to a new
era in which many of the approaches to social, economic, political or cultural
organizations require reconsideration—and adjustment to suit the times. Especially
from the beginning of the leadership period of Xi Jinping, China, under the guidance
of its vanguard CPC and in sometimes vigorous dialogue with its elite
institutions, has turned to the development of its social and political forces with
the same vigor with which it sought to develop its productive forces from early
in the leadership of Deng Xiaoping.
Indeed,
Chinese leaders have noted that as China has developed, its own governance
systems have been facing new challenges. The techniques and approaches to
democratic organization and operation, grounded in the assumptions of 20th
century techniques, were now required to meet new challenges that followed from
the successful development of Chinese productive forces and the deepening of
Chinese engagement with the world. The Chinese
Communist Party (CPC) itself, in exercising its leadership responsibilities noted
the shift from the challenges of development of productive forces to the
emergence of a new contradiction at the heart of Chinese governance. The Report
of the 19th CPC Congress made that clear:
What
we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development
and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. China has seen the basic
needs of over a billion people met, has basically made it possible for people
to live decent lives, and will soon bring the building of a moderately
prosperous society to a successful completion. The needs to be met for the
people to live better lives are increasingly broad. Not only have their
material and cultural needs grown; their demands for democracy, rule of law,
fairness and justice, security, and a better environment are increasing. At the
same time, China’s overall productive forces have significantly improved and in
many areas our production capacity leads the world. The more prominent problem
is that our development is unbalanced and inadequate. This has become the main
constraining factor in meeting the people’s increasing needs for a better life.
The
impulse to further develop the productive forces of governance in the face of
the fundamental challenges of China’s new era have acquired an increasingly
clear contemporary form since the conclusion of the CPC’s 19th Congress
in 2017. Xi Jinping’s Report to the 19th CPC Congress outlined a
comprehensive approach to socialist democracy deeply embedded within the guiding
leadership of the CPC and closely aligned with the people, state institutions,
and the mechanisms of consultation now in long development within the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Socialist democracy has
become an umbrella concept that intermesh a number of important structures that
constitute the framework within which democracy with both socialist and Chinese
characteristics is defined and implemented.
Socialist democracy itself includes significant focus on popular consultation,
and on the mediating power of law. It
also focuses on the parallel development of democratic structures and practices
within the CPC that can then be used as a template for the exercise by the CPC
of its leadership obligations. Democracy itself is shaped by an integrated normative
structure centered on what are referenced as “core socialist values” from which
it is possible both to implement and assess the working of institutions. But
socialist democracy also integrates what is referenced as “socialist consultative
democracy.” The Report to the19th CPC Congress explains:
We
will advance extensive, multilevel, and institutionalized development of
consultative democracy, and adopt a coordinated approach to promoting
consultations carried out by political parties, people’s congresses, government
departments, CPPCC committees, people’s organizations, communities, and social
organizations. We will strengthen the institutions of consultative democracy
and develop complete procedures and practices to enable the people’s broad,
continuous, and intensive participation in day-to-day political activities.
Socialist
consultative democracy has been developed around the United Front Parties as
well as other representative institutional social organs. It serves as a means through which popular
engagement can be institutionalized and made effective. Yet it appears to mean much more than that—integrating
most aspects of official life within a tight web of consultation, monitoring,
and review guided by the CPC.
As
in the West, these vigorous action appears to have produced a new approach both
to the theory and practice of democratic governance in China to suit the new
era of Chinese socialist development, a Marxist-Leninism 2.0 for the new era. This conference brings together leading
scholars from Europe, the United States and China, to consider the development of
this Chinese Socialist Democracy in the
new era. These scholars will consider
the theory, form, and consequences of Marxist-Leninism 2.0 as expressed as
contemporary Chinese Socialist Democracy.
It will take as a starting point Xi Jinping’s consideration about the
shape and practice of democracy within China:
“In
such a vast and populous socialist country, extensive deliberation under the
leadership of the CPC on major issues affecting the economy and the people’s
livelihood embodies the unity of democracy and centralism. Chinese socialist
democracy takes two important forms: In one, the people exercise their right to
vote in elections; and in the other, people from all sectors of society undertake
extensive deliberations before major decisions are made. In China these two
forms do not cancel one another out, nor are they contradictory. They are
complementary. They constitute institutional features and strengths of Chinese
socialist democracy.” (Quoted from Li Junru, Consultative Democracy, People’s
Democracy, China
Today March 1, 2018).
Contributions
will seek o theorize this emerging Marxist-Leninism 2.0, and to consider the
role of key institutional actors and organs—the CPPCC, the state institutions,
and other social and political forces—as well as their relationship to the CPC.
Analysis will be undertaken from a Chinese,
Western and comparative perspective. The
core object of participants will be to seek to extract the fundamental theory
and characteristics of the emerging systems, and to point to the likely paths
to further development.
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