The Party’s Historical Experience in Vigorously Combating Formalism and Bureaucracy

Formalism and bureaucracy are the great enemies of the Party’s mission and tasks on the new journey of the New Era.

形式主义、官僚主义是实现新时代新征程党的使命任务的大敌。

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party stressed the need to “persevere in implementing the spirit of the Central Committee’s Eight-Point Regulations and improve the institutional mechanisms for preventing and combating formalism and bureaucracy.” Over the past century and more, the Communist Party of China has maintained a high degree of vigilance against formalism and bureaucracy, repeatedly delivering precise strikes against their new forms and new variations. It has achieved tangible results through multiple measures, including building a solid ideological defense line, perfecting the institutional system, cultivating fine conduct, and emphasizing oversight by the masses. Summing up the Party’s historical experience in vigorously combating formalism and bureaucracy, and drawing wisdom from the Party’s history, holds important revelatory significance for our resolute opposition to formalism and bureaucracy today and for the solid advancement of Chinese-path modernization.

党的二十届三中全会强调，要“锲而不舍落实中央八项规定精神，健全防治形式主义、官僚主义制度机制”。一百多年来，中国共产党始终保持对形式主义、官僚主义的高度警醒，不断对形式主义、官僚主义的新形式新变化实施精准打击，在筑牢思想防线、完善制度体系、涵养优良作风、注重群众监督等方面多措并举、取得实效。总结中国共产党力戒形式主义、官僚主义的历史经验，从党的历史中汲取智慧，对我们今天坚决反对形式主义、官僚主义，扎实推进中国式现代化具有重要的启示意义。

Building a solid ideological defense line. Comrade Mao Zedong stressed: “Grasping ideological education is the central link in uniting the whole Party for great political struggle.” Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “Our Communist Party has a principle: to do work well, we must first solve the problem in ideology.” The root cause of formalism and bureaucracy lies in the wavering of ideals and convictions among some Party cadres and members. When they work, they are not, or not entirely, devoted to the cause of the Party and the people; they are keen on performing for their superiors, not on being responsible to those below, and not on achieving practical results, instead calculating their own “small abacus.” [1]1 The “Four Forms of Decadence” (四风) refers to formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, which were the target of a major rectification campaign launched after the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012. In view of this, our Party has focused on improving the theoretical quality, political capability, and Party spirit of cadres and members to build a solid ideological defense line against formalism and bureaucracy.

筑牢思想防线。毛泽东同志强调：“掌握思想教育，是团结全党进行伟大政治斗争的中心环节。”邓小平同志指出：“我们共产党有一条，就是要把工作做好，必须先从思想上解决问题。”形式主义、官僚主义产生的根源，在于一些党员干部理想信念出现了动摇，干工作不是或不完全是以党和人民的事业为重，热衷于对上表现、不对下负责、不考虑实效，打个人的“小算盘”。有鉴于此，我们党着重从提高党员干部的理论素质、政治能力、党性修养等方面，筑牢力戒形式主义、官僚主义的思想防线。

During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, our Party regarded formalism and bureaucracy as “manifestations of political wavering,” holding that they “are absolutely incompatible with the worker-peasant democratic regime led by the proletariat,” and stressed that opposing formalism and bureaucracy should be an important task in seizing and consolidating political power. The focus was on punishing such problems of work style, leadership, and working methods as commandism, book worship, and routinism. Comrade Mao Zedong once said: “The source of formalism is idealism,” and the fundamental reason is that “Marxism has not been firmly grasped” and the method of thinking is incorrect. Therefore, during the Yan’an Rectification Movement, [2]2 The “Three-Anti Campaign” (1951–1952) targeted corruption, waste, and bureaucracy within the Party and government; the “Five-Anti Campaign” (1952) targeted bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts, and stealing state economic information among private businesses. the Party Central Committee, leading from the top, organized research groups on the methodology of thought and established the Central Study Group, with the aim of promoting the whole Party’s “study of the Marxist methodology of thought” and raising the theoretical and political level of senior Party cadres, thereby overcoming subjectivism and formalism. In advancing the process of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the “force of habit” of formalism and bureaucracy seriously hindered the Four Modernizations, [3] and stressed the need to strengthen ideological struggle, “criticize the influence of exploiting-class ideology and the narrow, conservative mentality of small-scale production, criticize anarchism and ultra-individualism, and overcome bureaucracy.” When analyzing the subjective reasons why formalism and bureaucracy repeatedly appear despite repeated bans

新民主主义革命时期，我们党把形式主义、官僚主义视为“政治上已经动摇的表现”，认为其“和无产阶级领导的工农民主政权是绝不相容的”，强调要把反对形式主义、官僚主义作为夺取和巩固政权的一项重要工作，重点对强迫命令、本本主义、事务主义等作风问题、领导和工作方式进行惩治。毛泽东同志曾说：“形式主义之来源是由于唯心主义”，根本原因是“马克思主义没有拿得稳”，思想方法不对头。因此，在延安整风期间，党中央以上率下组织思想方法论的研究组，成立中央学习组，目的在于推动全党“研究马克思主义的思想方法论”，提高党内高级干部的理论水平和政治水平，克服主观主义和形式主义。在推进改革开放的进程中，邓小平同志指出形式主义、官僚主义的“习惯势力”严重妨碍四个现代化建设，强调要加强意识形态斗争，“批判剥削阶级思想和小生产守旧狭隘心理的影响，批判无政府主义、极端个人主义，克服官僚主义”。习近平总书记在分析形式主义、官僚主义等屡禁不止的主观原因时，指出主要是“世界观、人生观、价值观问题没有解决好”，强调根除这些弊病“起决定作用的是党性”。全党紧紧围绕坚定理想信念等开展一系列教育实践活动，不断筑牢力戒形式主义、官僚主义的思想防线。

Improve the institutional system. The reason formalism and bureaucratism repeatedly emerge is that “the crux lies in underestimating the stubbornness and recurrence of work-style problems, lacking the tenacity for sustained effort and the patience for strict enforcement, and lacking institutions that ensure long-term effectiveness and consolidate the foundations.” Therefore, anchoring efforts to the goal of regularization and normalization, continuously improving regular warning and education activities, normalized oversight mechanisms, and systematized rules and regulations, and strictly enforcing institutional implementation, are necessary paths for resolutely opposing formalism and bureaucratism.

完善制度体系。形式主义、官僚主义之所以屡屡产生，“症结就在于对作风问题的顽固性和反复性估计不足，缺乏常抓的韧劲、严抓的耐心，缺乏管长远、固根本的制度”。因此，锚定经常化、常态化目标，不断完善经常性的警示教育活动、常态化的监督机制、体系化的规章制度等，并狠抓制度执行，是力戒形式主义、官僚主义的必要路径。

After the founding of New China, the Party Central Committee successively established Party discipline inspection systems and supervision systems at both central and local levels, conducting specialized oversight and management of corruption, degeneration, and violations of law and discipline by Party cadres. Comrade Deng Xiaoping believed that bureaucratism is not merely a matter of ideological work style but, more importantly, a matter of institutions; “if the institutional problem is not solved, the ideological work-style problem cannot be solved either.” Marked by the implementation of the *Guidelines for Political Life Within the Party*, the Party’s institutional construction entered a new phase of restoration and development. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that to resolve the prominent contradictions and problems existing within the Party, “a very important measure is to perfect norms, improve institutions, and tighten the institutional cage.” To date, our Party has made provisions against formalism and bureaucratism in laws and regulations such as the *Guidelines for Political Life Within the Party Under the New Situation*, the *Code of Integrity and Self-Discipline of the Communist Party of China*, the *Regulations on Disciplinary Action of the Communist Party of China*, and the *Law on Administrative Discipline for Public Officials of the People’s Republic of China*. These binding regulations transform the deployment requirements and experiential practices of opposing formalism and bureaucratism into institutional norms. Through the Party’s constitution, Party organizational regulations and institutions, Party leadership regulations and institutions, Party self-building regulations and institutions, and Party oversight and guarantee regulations and institutions, they have formed a regulatory and institutional system for opposing formalism and bureaucratism that encompasses education, norms, constraints, and sanctions, providing strong institutional support for systematic governance and addressing both symptoms and root causes.

新中国成立后，党中央先后在中央和地方建立起党的各级纪律检查系统、监察系统，对党员干部的贪污腐化、违法乱纪行为进行专门的监督管理。邓小平同志认为，官僚主义不仅是一个思想作风问题，更重要的是制度问题，“制度问题不解决，思想作风问题也解决不了”。以实施《关于党内政治生活的若干准则》为标志，党的制度建设开启了恢复和发展的新阶段。党的十八大以来，习近平总书记强调把党内存在的突出矛盾和问题解决好，“很重要的一条就是要完善规范、健全制度，扎紧制度的笼子”。截至目前，我们党已经在《关于新形势下党内政治生活的若干准则》《中国共产党廉洁自律准则》《中国共产党纪律处分条例》《中华人民共和国公职人员政务处分法》等法律法规中对力戒形式主义、官僚主义作出规范。这些刚性规定，把力戒形式主义、官僚主义的部署要求、经验做法转化为制度规范，以党的章程、党的组织法规制度、党的领导法规制度、党的自身建设法规制度和党的监督保障法规制度等形成了包括教育、规范、制约、惩戒在内的力戒形式主义、官僚主义法规制度体系，为系统施治、标本兼治提供了坚强制度支撑。

Cultivate fine work styles. The Party’s work style represents the Party’s image, is related to popular support, and concerns the Party’s survival or extinction. “As a Marxist ruling party, our Party must possess not only powerful truth force but also powerful personality force. Truth force is concentratedly embodied in our Party’s correct theory, and personality force is concentratedly embodied in our Party’s fine work style.” The Communist Party of China always maintains close ties with the masses, continuously works to improve the ideological work style, work conduct, leadership style, and lifestyle of Party cadres, preserves the health of the Party’s organism, and cultivates the fine work style of resolutely opposing formalism and bureaucratism.

涵养优良作风。党的作风代表着党的形象，关系人心向背，关系党的生死存亡。“我们党作为马克思主义执政党，不但要有强大的真理力量，而且要有强大的人格力量。真理力量集中体现为我们党的正确理论，人格力量集中体现为我们党的优良作风。”中国共产党始终密切联系群众，持续抓好党员干部思想作风、工作作风、领导作风、生活作风，保持党的肌体健康，涵养力戒形式主义、官僚主义的优良作风。

Formalism and bureaucratism are prominently manifested at the work-style level as a lack of solidity in solving work problems and insufficient effort in safeguarding the interests of the masses; their core issue is being divorced from reality and from the masses. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out that to mobilize the masses to participate in the revolution, “one must care about the masses’ hardships, must sincerely seek benefits for the masses, and solve the masses’ problems of production and livelihood: the problem of salt, the problem of rice, the problem of housing, the problem of clothing, the problem of childbirth, and solve all the masses’ problems” (*Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, Vol. 1, People’s Publishing House, 1991, pp. 138–139). In the early period of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping regarded rectifying the Party’s work style as a task “of decisive significance,” starting with addressing the excessive concurrent posts held by senior Party and state leaders and the problem of lengthy meetings, and taking the lead in opposing formalism and bureaucratism. During the Party consolidation movement that began in 1983, the Party Central Committee made rectifying work style a priority, promoting the spirit of serving the people wholeheartedly, correcting various acts of seeking personal gain by abusing power, and opposing bureaucratism that is irresponsible to the Party and the people. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, from introducing the Central Eight-Point Regulations and rectifying prominent issues of the “Four Forms of Decadence” [n], to continuously solving problems of formalism that plague grassroots units and rectifying formalism to reduce burdens at the grassroots level, the Party Central Committee has focused on the actual work of grassroots units and put forward clear requirements for the Party’s work style. In particular, successive intra-Party centralized study and education campaigns have taken work-style construction as an important component, laying a solid foundation for curbing and governing formalism and bureaucratism.

形式主义、官僚主义在作风层面突出表现为解决工作问题不实、维护群众利益不力，其核心问题是脱离实际、脱离群众。毛泽东同志指出要调动人民群众参加革命，“就得关心群众的痛痒，就得真心实意地为群众谋利益，解决群众的生产和生活问题，盐的问题，米的问题，房子的问题，衣的问题，生小孩子的问题，解决群众的一切问题”（《毛泽东选集》第一卷，人民出版社1991年版，第138~139页）。改革开放初期，邓小平同志把端正党的作风作为“具有决定的意义”的一项工作，从治理党和国家高级领导人兼职过多和冗长会议现象入手，带头反对形式主义、官僚主义。在1983年开始的整党运动中，党中央把整顿作风作为重点，发扬全心全意为人民服务的精神，纠正各种利用职权谋取私利的行为，反对对党和人民不负责任的官僚主义。党的十八大以来，从出台中央八项规定、整治“四风”突出问题，到持续解决困扰基层的形式主义问题和整治形式主义为基层减负，党中央聚焦基层工作实际，对党的工作作风提出了明确要求，特别是历次党内集中学习教育都把作风建设作为重要内容，为遏制和治理形式主义、官僚主义打牢基础。

Emphasize mass oversight. Resolutely opposing formalism and bureaucratism cannot be separated from strong oversight. “Our Party has strict organizational discipline; its fundamental purpose is to serve the people wholeheartedly, and accepting oversight from the organization and the people is perfectly natural and justified.” Our Party insists that the effectiveness of rectification efforts should ultimately be judged by the people, vigorously fosters an environment that encourages and protects oversight, and stimulates the people’s sense of being masters of the country and their enthusiasm for oversight.

注重群众监督。力戒形式主义、官僚主义离不开强有力的监督。“我们党有严密的组织性和纪律性，党的根本宗旨是全心全意为人民服务，接受组织和人民监督天经地义。”我们党坚持整治效果最终由人民群众来评判，大力营造鼓励监督、保护监督的环境，激发人民群众的主人翁意识和监督热情。

During the Yan’an period, Comrade Mao Zedong, in his discussion with Huang Yanpei on how to break out of the historical cycle of rise and fall, proposed that “the people must supervise the government” and “everyone must take responsibility.” Formalism and bureaucracy are “reactionary styles of work toward the people”; their long-term existence and constant mutation are closely related to insufficient mass participation in supervision. Comrade Mao Zedong placed particular emphasis on punishing formalism and bureaucracy by establishing democratic political power or mobilizing bottom-up supervision by the masses. In the early days of the founding of New China, our Party, in movements such as rectification of work styles and Party consolidation, the “Three-Anti Campaign” and the “Five-Anti Campaign,” [2]2 The “Three-Anti Campaign” (1951–1952) targeted corruption, waste, and bureaucracy within the Party and government; the “Five-Anti Campaign” (1952) targeted bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts, and stealing state economic information among private businesses. all to varying degrees used the forms of mobilizing the masses and supervision by public opinion to vigorously combat formalism and bureaucracy. After reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping stressed, “There must be a mass supervision system, so that the masses and Party members can supervise cadres, especially leading cadres” (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. 2, p. 332). Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that strengthening the Party’s capacity for self-purification fundamentally relies on strengthening the Party’s self-supervision and mass supervision. Our Party consciously accepts supervision by the people, improves various systems for making affairs public, builds channels for mass feedback, and strengthens the role of mass satisfaction in the selection, appointment, and assessment of cadres, thereby making substantive progress in vigorously combating formalism and bureaucracy by expanding mass participation.

延安时期，毛泽东同志在与黄炎培讨论如何跳出治乱兴衰历史周期率问题时，提出要“让人民来监督政府”“人人起来负责”。形式主义、官僚主义是“对待人民的反动作风”，它们之所以长期存在、花样翻新，与群众参与监督不够充分有密切关系。毛泽东同志尤为重视通过建立民主政权或发动群众自下而上的监督来惩治形式主义、官僚主义。新中国成立之初，我们党在整风整党、“三反”“五反”等运动中，都不同程度通过发动群众、舆论监督的形式力戒形式主义、官僚主义。改革开放后，邓小平同志强调，“要有群众监督制度，让群众和党员监督干部，特别是领导干部”（《邓小平文选》第二卷，第332页）。党的十八大以来，习近平总书记强调，增强党自我净化能力，根本靠强化党的自我监督和群众监督。我们党自觉接受人民监督，完善各类办事公开制度、搭建群众意见反馈渠道、强化群众满意度在干部选拔任用考核中的作用意见，在扩大群众参与中使力戒形式主义、官僚主义取得实质性进展。

Source: Struggle, Issue 4, 2025

文章来源：《奋斗》2025年第4期

Online editor: Jing Mu

网络编辑：静穆