Whole-Process People’s Democracy Is the Inevitable Requirement and Realization Path of Chinese-Path Modernization

I. Introduction

一、引言

The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC [1]1 The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in October 2022. points out: “From now on, the central task of the Communist Party of China is to unite and lead the people of all ethnic groups across the country to comprehensively build a great modern socialist country, achieve the second centenary goal [2]2 The second centenary goal refers to building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the 21st century, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China., and comprehensively advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-path modernization.” Xi Jinping emphasizes: “Summarizing and deeply elaborating the theory of Chinese-path modernization is a major theoretical innovation of the 20th National Congress and the latest major achievement of scientific socialism.” In the New Era and on the new journey, it is necessary to continuously enrich and expand the theoretical system of Chinese-path modernization. From Xi Jinping’s proposal of “whole-process democracy” during his research at the Shanghai Changning grassroots legislative contact point in 2019, to his call to “develop whole-process people’s democracy” at the celebration of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, to the proposal to “actively develop whole-process people’s democracy” at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee [3]3 The Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee was held in November 2021., and then to the emphasis at the 20th National Congress on “comprehensively developing whole-process people’s democracy” and making it one of the nine essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization, this fully demonstrates the importance of whole-process people’s democracy for the construction of socialist democratic politics and Chinese-path modernization.

党的二十大报告指出：“从现在起，中国共产党的中心任务就是团结带领全国各族人民全面建成社会主义现代化强国、实现第二个百年奋斗目标，以中国式现代化全面推进中华民族伟大复兴。”习近平强调：“概括提出并深入阐述中国式现代化理论，是党的二十大的一个重大理论创新，是科学社会主义的最新重大成果。”新时代新征程，必须不断充实和丰富中国式现代化理论体系。自2019年习近平在上海长宁基层立法点调研提出“全过程的民主”到在庆祝中国共产党成立100周年大会上提出“发展全过程人民民主”，到在党的十九届六中全会上提出“积极发展全过程人民民主”，再到党的二十大强调“全面发展全过程人民民主”，并将发展全过程人民民主作为中国式现代化的九个本质要求之一，充分体现出全过程人民民主对社会主义民主政治建设和中国式现代化的重要性。

Since Xi Jinping proposed the concepts of Chinese-path modernization and whole-process people’s democracy, a large number of research results have emerged in academic circles around these two topics. However, judging from existing results, academic research on Chinese-path modernization tends to focus more on analysis from a macroeconomic and societal perspective, while discussions on whole-process people’s democracy are concentrated on democratic concepts and the construction of democratic institutions. Analysis combining Chinese-path modernization with whole-process people’s democracy remains relatively insufficient, especially lacking analysis that links the basic characteristics of Chinese-path modernization with the concrete practices of whole-process people’s democracy. This leads to a lack of longer-term goal anchors in the analysis of whole-process people’s democracy, and a lack of a democratic political perspective in the analysis of Chinese-path modernization, which is not conducive to a more comprehensive display of the overall picture of Chinese-path modernization, to further enriching the theoretical system of Chinese-path modernization, nor to a profound understanding of the connotation and long-term value of whole-process people’s democracy. This article aims to examine whole-process people’s democracy from the perspective of Chinese-path modernization, analyze the necessity of developing whole-process people’s democracy from the five characteristics of Chinese-path modernization, and analyze how whole-process people’s democracy becomes an important realization path for Chinese-path modernization from the five links of whole-process people’s democracy.

自习近平提出中国式现代化和全过程人民民主的概念后，学界围绕二者产生了大量研究成果。但是从现有成果来看，学界对中国式现代化的研究更侧重从宏观经济社会的角度进行分析，而对全过程人民民主的讨论则集中于民主理念和民主制度建设，将中国式现代化和全过程人民民主相结合的分析仍然相对不足，尤其是缺乏将中国式现代化的基本特征和全过程人民民主的具体实践结合起来的分析，这导致对全过程人民民主的分析缺乏更长远的目标锚点，对中国式现代化的分析缺乏民主政治视野，不利于更全面地展示中国式现代化的整体图景、进一步丰富中国式现代化的理论体系，也不利于深刻理解全过程人民民主的内涵和长远价值。本文旨在在中国式现代化视域下审视全过程人民民主，从中国式现代化的五大特征分析发展全过程人民民主的必要性，从全过程人民民主的五大环节分析全过程人民民主如何成为中国式现代化的重要实现路径。

II. Chinese-Path Modernization and Whole-Process People’s Democracy Embody a New Form of Human Civilization

二、中国式现代化和全过程人民民主体现出人类文明新形态

Democracy is a common value pursued by humanity, and modernization is an inevitable trend in the development of human society. Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “Democratization, like modernization, must advance step by step. The more socialism develops, the more democracy develops.” Chinese-path modernization and whole-process people’s democracy respectively transcend previous paths of modernization and democracy, representing a new form of human modernization and a new form of human political civilization, and the two are closely related.

民主是人类追求的共同价值，现代化是人类社会发展的必然趋势。邓小平指出：“民主化和现代化一样，也要一步一步地前进。社会主义愈发展，民主也愈发展。”中国式现代化和全过程人民民主分别超越了既往的现代化道路和民主道路，是人类现代化的新形态和人类政治文明的新形态，二者存在密切关联。

(1) Chinese-Path Modernization Is a New Form of Human Modernization

（一）中国式现代化是人类现代化新形态

Achieving modernization is not only a practical need for national competition but also a common aspiration of people around the world. Modernization means the transition from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial society. Because the Industrial Revolution first occurred in the West, Western industrialization and urbanization processes were faster, and Western forms of modernization took shape first. Starting in the 1960s, based on the experiences of the United States and some European countries, the concept of modernization emerged and became popular. Modernization shifted from initially referring to economic industrialization to encompassing a composite concept with many features such as social urbanization, cultural secularization, and political electoralization. On this basis, a unilinear path of modernization analysis was formed, meaning that regardless of the economic, cultural, religious, and political conditions of late-developing countries, Western modernization was considered the only path to achieving modernization.

实现现代化不仅是国家竞争的现实需求，也是世界各国人民的共同心愿。现代化意味着从传统农业社会转型到现代工业社会。由于工业革命率先发生在西方，西方工业化和城市化进程较快，率先形成了西方的现代化形态。从20世纪60年代开始，基于美国及欧洲一些国家的经验，现代化的概念产生并开始流行，现代化从最初指经济的工业化转变为包含社会城市化、文化世俗化和政治选举化等诸多特征的复合概念，在此基础上形成了一元现代化的分析路径，即不管后发国家的经济、文化、宗教和政治现状如何，西方的现代化被认为是实现现代化的唯一道路。

After the Opium War [4]4 The Opium War (1839–1842) was a military conflict between Qing China and Britain, often seen as the beginning of China’s “century of humiliation” and its forced opening to foreign powers., China also experienced confusion in its transition from a traditional state to a modern nation-state, once taking “imitating others” as the only path. With the founding of the Communist Party of China and the beginning of exploring the path of modernization, the historical initiative and historical consciousness of the Chinese people began to germinate, and they gradually explored a path of modernization that did not require “imitating” the West but was spontaneously generated. At the second plenary meeting of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, Xi Jinping pointed out that the path of Chinese-path modernization “has solved many difficult problems in the development of human society, abandoned the Western old path of capital-centered modernization, polarized modernization, materialistically inflated modernization, and externally expansionist and predatory modernization, expanded the ways for developing countries to achieve modernization, and provided a Chinese solution for humanity’s exploration of a better social system.” The 20th National Congress proposed: “Chinese-path modernization… has the common characteristics of modernization in all countries, and more importantly, has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions.” The path of Chinese-path modernization is a unique, endogenous new path of modernization formed by the Communist Party of China following the universal laws of Marxism on the development of human society, combined with China’s modernization practice and historical and cultural traditions. In the process of Chinese-path modernization, individuals are not abstract, illusory individuals, but concrete, historical people. Chinese-path modernization abandons the supremacy of capital logic, always adheres to the people-centered position, upholds the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, opposes hegemony and plunder, and answers a series of major theoretical and epochal questions. Chinese-path modernization can well accomplish the main tasks of advancing the modernization of national governance, developing the modernization of material production, and carrying out the modernization of social construction, adapting to the structural needs of large-scale socialized production, globalization, and governance modernization. The path of Chinese-path modernization takes common prosperity as its goal, whole-process people’s democracy as its political goal, the common values of all humanity as the new guideline for cultural-ethical progress, the realization of people’s comprehensive and free development as the new direction for social civilization, and the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature as the new dimension of human ecological civilization. It integrates various forms such as political civilization, economic civilization, and social ecological civilization, possessing both Chinese characteristics and global significance in terms of civilizational models, civilizational concepts, and civilizational values, collectively embodied as a new form of human modernization.

鸦片战争后，中国也在传统国家向现代民族国家转型中迷惘过，一度以“模仿他者”为唯一路径。伴随着中国共产党的成立以及开始探索现代化道路，中国人民的历史主动性和历史自觉性开始萌发，并逐步探索出一条不需要“模仿”西方而是自发生成的现代化道路。在党的十九届六中全会第二次全体会议上，习近平指出，中国式现代化道路“破解了人类社会发展的诸多难题，摒弃了西方以资本为中心的现代化、两极分化的现代化、物质主义膨胀的现代化、对外扩张掠夺的现代化老路，拓展了发展中国家走向现代化的途径，为人类对更好社会制度的探索提供了中国方案”。党的二十大提出：“中国式现代化……既有各国现代化的共同特征，更有基于自己国情的中国特色。”中国式现代化道路是中国共产党遵循马克思主义关于人类社会发展的普遍规律，结合中国的现代化实践和历史文化传统，形成的一条独创性、内生性的现代化新路。中国式现代化进程中的个人并非抽象的、虚幻的个体，而是具体的、历史的人民，中国式现代化摒弃了资本逻辑至上，始终坚持人民主体地位，坚持人类命运共同体理念，反对霸权和掠夺，回答了一系列重大理论和时代问题。中国式现代化能够很好地完成推进国家治理现代化、发展物质生产现代化、开展社会建设现代化等主要任务，适应了社会化大生产、全球化、治理现代化的结构性需要。中国式现代化道路以共同富裕为目标，以全过程人民民主为政治目标，以全人类共同价值为精神文明的新遵循，以实现人的全面自由发展为社会文明的新指向，以人与自然和谐共生为人类生态文明的新维度，整合了政治文明、经济文明和社会生态文明等多种样态，在文明模式、文明理念、文明价值等方面既有中国特色又有世界意义，集中体现为人类现代化的新形态。

(2) Whole-Process People’s Democracy Is a New Form of Human Political Civilization

（二）全过程人民民主是人类政治文明新形态

Democracy is a common value of all humanity. Western countries took the lead in carrying out political revolutions, which to a certain extent guaranteed citizens’ political rights and property rights, forming a Western-style democratic model. However, Western democratic systems face problems of governance failure and democratic dysfunction. The Western-style democratic model is built on the historical experience of major Western countries, denies the objective fact of the diversification of democratic development, is not only theoretically biased but also unable to explain the diversity of political transformations in different countries. Western-style democracy has narrowed the connotation of democracy, ultimately forming a single-process voter democracy, urgently requiring a new form of democratic political civilization to resolve the inherent contradictions of single-process voter democracy.

民主是全人类的共同价值。西方国家率先进行政治革命，在一定程度上保障了公民的政治权利和财产权利，形成西式民主模式。但是，西方民主制度面临着治理失效和民主功能失灵的问题。西式民主模式建立在西方主要国家的历史经验之上，否定了民主发展多元化的客观事实，不仅在理论上存在偏颇，也无法解释不同国家政治转型的多样性。西式民主窄化了民主内涵，最终形成了单过程选民民主，亟需新的民主政治文明形态来解决单过程选民民主的内在矛盾。

Democracy is the core and main content of political civilization. Developing democratic politics is the only way to achieve political civilization. Democratic construction and political civilization construction are mutually embedded. Based on the practical needs of national governance and the feasible strategic conditions of democratic participants, and according to the actual conditions of the economic environment and political-social system, China has formed an endogenous and sustainable form of democracy, namely whole-process people’s democracy. Whole-process people’s democracy is rooted in the Chinese civilization’s traditions of democracy, people’s livelihood, and people-centeredness, takes root in China’s revolution, construction, and reform processes, especially the great practice of the New Era, combines history and tradition with institutions and practice, and covers the entire process of democratic elections, democratic consultations, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision. These five links have their own emphases and cooperate with each other, forming a real and effective form of democracy and democratic system, conducive to the realization of democracy, and representing a new form of human political civilization.

民主是政治文明的核心和主要内容，发展民主政治是实现政治文明的必由之路，民主建设和政治文明建设具有互嵌性。中国依据国家治理的现实需要和民主参与者的可行性战略条件，根据经济环境和政治社会制度的现实状况，形成了内生的、可持续性的民主形式，即全过程人民民主。全过程人民民主植根于中华文明的民主、民生与民本传统，扎根于中国的革命、建设、改革过程，特别是新时代的伟大实践，将历史与传统、制度与实践相结合，覆盖了民主选举、民主协商、民主决策、民主管理和民主监督全过程，这五个环节各有侧重且互相配合，形成了真实有效的民主形式和民主制度，有助于民主的实现，是人类政治文明新形态。

Whole-process people’s democracy inherently contains the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Political parties are the product of democratic politics, and the level of development of a party system reflects the level of the democratic system. Whole-process people’s democracy takes the leadership of the Communist Party of China as its fundamental guarantee, avoids the party strife politics, social division, and social turmoil of Western bourgeois political parties, and is able to realize the institutionalized participation of the people. Through the leadership of the Communist Party of China, it transforms the will of the people into national laws, promoting the construction of political order and the coordination of interest relations. At the same time, the Communist Party of China, as the ruling party, engages in political consultation with other political parties, forming a new type of party system. Whole-process people’s democracy guarantees and develops the new type of party system, and is a new form of human political civilization.

全过程人民民主内在地包含着中国共产党的领导。政党是民主政治的产物，政党制度的发展水平反映了民主制度的水平。全过程人民民主以中国共产党的领导为根本保证，避免了西方资产阶级政党的党争政治、社会撕裂和社会动荡，能够实现人民群众的制度化参与，通过中国共产党的领导将人民群众的意志转化为国家法律，推动政治秩序的建构和利益关系的协调。与此同时，中国共产党作为执政党，与其他政党进行政治协商，形成了新型政党制度。全过程人民民主保障并发展了新型政党制度，是人类政治文明新形态。

(III) Modernization and Democracy Are Both Common Pursuits of Humanity

（三）现代化与民主都是人类共同追求

Modernization and democracy are both pursuits of humanity, but there is no necessary connection between modernization and Western-style democracy. Classical Western modernization theory emphasizes the relationship between economic modernization and political democratization. Seymour Martin Lipset pointed out that the higher the level of modernization, the easier it is to produce a Western democratic system. Philippe C. Schmitter conducted a correlation analysis of the level of economic development and democracy indices in 77 countries in the 1960s, attempting to demonstrate a positive correlation between the two. However, democracy indices, from the design of the indicator system to the weighting of indicators, carry strong value biases. The so-called democracy indices of the West are a scientific packaging of this bias, and the relevant measurements have systematic errors.

现代化与民主都是人类的追求，但是现代化与西式民主并无必然联系。西方经典现代化理论强调经济现代化与政治民主化的关系。西摩·马丁·李普塞特指出，现代化水平越高，越容易产生西方民主制度。菲利普·科曲特对20世纪60年代 77 个国家的经济发展水平与民主指数进行相关性分析，试图论证二者存在正相关关系。然而，民主指数从指标体系设计到指标权重，带有强烈的价值观偏见。西方的所谓民主指数是对这种偏见的科学化包装，有关测量具有系统性偏误。

Based on these so-called objective data, Western scholars attempt to achieve the goal of “bundling” modernization with democratization by demonstrating the relationship between Western-style modernization and Western-style democratization, leading people to the erroneous conclusion that as long as one wishes to transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society and live a better life, one must inevitably choose Western-style modernization and the Western democratic system. But in reality, using seemingly objective democracy indices to represent democracy involves measurement errors, and deducing so-called “bidirectional causality” from the correlation coefficient between the so-called democracy index and the economic level also violates the law of causality. Whether realizing modernization or democratization, one should choose a path suited to one’s national conditions, and Chinese-path modernization and whole-process people’s democracy are paths suited to China’s national conditions.

基于这些所谓的客观数据，西方学者试图通过论证西式现代化和西式民主化的关系，达到将现代化与民主化进行“捆绑”的目的，以使人们得出一个错误的结论，即只要人们希望从农业社会过渡到工业社会，过上更好的生活，就必然要选择西式现代化和西式民主制度。但是实际上，用看似客观的民主指数来指代民主存在测量误差，从所谓民主指数和经济水平的相关系数中推导出所谓的“双向因果”也违背因果律。不管是实现现代化还是民主化都应该选择适合本国国情的道路，而中国式现代化和全过程人民民主是适合中国国情的道路。

III. Chinese-Path Modernization Inevitably Requires Whole-Process People’s Democracy

三、中国式现代化必然要求全过程人民民主

Democracy is an inevitable requirement of modernization, and the characteristics of modernization determine the specific form of democracy. Modernization is a systematic project that requires changes in many aspects, including the political system, social governance, and the education system. Among these, democracy is an important way to mobilize the people’s enthusiasm for participation and serve economic and social development. Chinese-path modernization is the socialist modernization led by the Communist Party of China, a modernization of a huge population, common prosperity for all, the coordination of material and cultural-ethical progress, harmony between humanity and nature, and peaceful development. The basic characteristics of Chinese-path modernization determine that China’s democracy must have Chinese characteristics. Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must continue to advance the construction of whole-process people’s democracy, embodying the people being the masters of the country concretely and realistically in the policies and measures of the Party’s governance of the country, concretely and realistically in all aspects and at all levels of the work of the Party and state organs, and concretely and realistically in the work of realizing the people’s aspiration for a better life.”

民主是现代化的必然要求，现代化的特征决定了民主的具体形式。现代化是一个系统工程，需要政治体制、社会治理、教育体制等诸多方面实现变革，其中民主是调动人民参与热情、服务经济社会发展的重要方式。中国式现代化是中国共产党领导的社会主义现代化，是人口规模巨大、全体人民共同富裕、物质文明和精神文明相协调、人与自然和谐共生、走和平发展道路的现代化。中国式现代化的基本特征决定了中国的民主要有中国的特色。习近平指出：“我们要继续推进全过程人民民主建设，把人民当家作主具体地、现实地体现到党治国理政的政策措施上来，具体地、现实地体现到党和国家机关各个方面各个层级工作上来，具体地、现实地体现到实现人民对美好生活向往的工作上来。”

(A) Realizing the Modernization of a Huge Population Requires Implementing Whole-Process People’s Democracy

（一）实现人口规模巨大的现代化要求实行全过程人民民主

Xi Jinping emphasized: “A large party and a large country are both our advantages in accomplishing great things and building great undertakings, and they also mean we face many unique difficulties in governing the Party and the country.” [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Seventh Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China” (January 11, 2022), in *Selected Readings of Xi Jinping’s Important Works*, Vol. 4, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2023, p. 556. The huge population size of a large country means facing and correctly handling the interests and demands of hundreds of millions of people, which may involve conflicts among many value goals and multiple tasks. And the extremely uneven distribution of the population means that in different regions and at different times, the interests and demands of different groups and different strata must be balanced and handled. Therefore, China’s democratic politics must consider the country’s governance scale and carry out democratic political construction within the existing governance scale.

习近平强调：“大党大国，既是我们办大事、建伟业的优势，也使我们治党治国面对很多独有难题。”大国的人口规模巨大意味着要面临并正确处理好亿万民众的利益诉求，这些诉求可能存在诸多价值目标和多重任务的冲突。而人口分布极不均衡，就意味着在不同地区、不同时间段内必须平衡和处理好不同群体、不同阶层的利益诉求，因此中国的民主政治必须考虑本国的治理规模，在既有的治理规模下进行民主政治建设。

The governance scale formed by China’s uniquely large land area and huge population is a fundamental variable of national governance. China’s governance scale causes it to bear a unique governance burden, making problems such as information asymmetry and interest coordination more likely. Some scholars, based on complexity science theory and chaos theory, point out that a larger governance scale faces positive and negative scaling effects. While bringing about economies of scale in economic governance, it may also lead to an increase in economic and social interest conflicts. To solve problems of spatial governance, policy implementation, power supervision, and information governance under an ultra-large governance scale, China has delineated functional zones according to the governance scale, established and implemented an inspection and patrol system, and set up a national survey team, among other measures. [6]6 The inspection and patrol system (巡视巡察制度) refers to the Party’s internal supervision mechanism, where central and local inspection teams are dispatched to lower-level Party organizations to conduct oversight. The National Bureau of Statistics (国家调查队) is a specialized survey organization under the National Bureau of Statistics, established to collect independent statistical data.

中国特有的超大国土面积和超大人口规模形成的治理规模是国家治理的基础变量，中国的治理规模导致中国承担着特有的治理负荷，更容易出现信息不对称、利益协调等难题。有学者基于复杂科学理论和混沌理论指出，较大的治理规模面临着正向缩放和负向缩放效应，在带来经济治理方面规模效应的同时，可能导致经济社会利益矛盾的增多。为了解决超大治理规模下的空间治理、政策落实、权力监督和信息治理等难题，中国依据治理规模，有针对性地划定功能区、建立并实施巡视巡察制度、设立国家调查队等。

The ultra-large scale not only affects the choice of governance methods but also the choice of democratic forms. There were analyses of governance scale and democratic forms as early as in ancient Greece. Plato, in *The Laws*, pointed out that the ideal number of people in a city-state was 5,400, so that citizens could be conveniently grouped for discussion. Aristotle also pointed out that the population of an ideal city-state should be neither too large nor too small, otherwise it would be difficult to form effective institutions and order. As political practitioners, we cannot set a specific number of people to be governed; instead, we must, based on the existing governance scale, purposefully choose a democratic form suited to China’s population size.

超大规模不仅影响了治理方式的选择，也影响了民主形式的选择。古希腊时期就有关于治理规模和民主形态的分析，柏拉图在《法律篇》中指出，城邦的理想人数是5400人，这样才便于公民分组进行讨论。亚里士多德也指出，理想城邦的人口不应过多或者过少，否则难以形成有效的制度和秩序。作为政治实践者，我们无法设定特定的治理人数，而是必须依据现有的治理规模，有针对性地选择适合中国人口规模的民主形式。

A huge population size means there are many interest subjects participating in political activities, and it means dealing with a large number of dispersed individual interests and complex collective interests. Each individual cannot focus only on individual interests, harming the overall interests or tearing society apart; otherwise, it would lead to political disorder in a large country, and society would be unable to function. Whole-process people’s democracy emphasizes the political and collective concept of “the people,” emphasizes the unity of people’s democracy and the will of the state, ensures the consistency of the fundamental and long-term interests of the people with their specific and immediate interests, and is able to realize the unity of individual democratic rights with the overall development of the country. It is a democratic form suited to a country with a huge population.

人口规模巨大意味着参与政治活动的利益主体多，意味着必须处理好大量的、分散的个体利益和复杂的集体利益。每个个体不能仅关注个体利益，而侵害整体利益或者撕裂社会，否则会导致大国政治失序，社会无法运行。全过程人民民主强调“人民”这样的政治概念和集合概念，强调人民民主和国家意志相统一，确保人民群众根本利益、长远利益与具体利益、眼前利益的一致，能够实现个体民主权利与国家整体发展相统一，是适合人口规模巨大国家的民主形态。

A huge population size means that authoritative force is needed to integrate conflicting interests. Numerous interest subjects require an authoritative organization or force for integration. If effective integration and guidance are lacking, it can easily lead to disorderly political participation. This requires us to focus on strengthening organizational integration in the democratic process. The *Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century* points out: “To govern well the world’s largest political party and the most populous country, we must uphold the Party’s overall leadership, especially the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, uphold democratic centralism, and ensure that the Party always oversees the overall situation and coordinates all parties.” [7]7 *Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century*, Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2021, p. 74. Whole-process people’s democracy inherently includes the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the Communist Party of China, as the ruling party, can effectively integrate the interests of all parties. It is a democratic form suited to China’s national conditions.

人口规模巨大意味着需要权威力量整合利益冲突。众多的利益主体需要有权威组织或力量进行整合，如果缺乏有效整合与引导，容易导致无序的政治参与，这要求我们在民主过程中必须注重加强组织整合。《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议》指出：“治理好我们这个世界上最大的政党和人口最多的国家，必须坚持党的全面领导特别是党中央集中统一领导，坚持民主集中制，确保党始终总揽全局、协调各方。”全过程人民民主内在包含了中国共产党的全面领导，而中国共产党作为执政党能够有效整合各方利益，是适合中国国情的民主形态。

A huge population size means the task of realizing modernization is immense, especially since the huge population is distributed across different regions. For a vast country like China, different regions often have different stages of development. China’s democratic governance faces the superimposed governance tasks of pre-modern society, modern society, and post-modern society, meaning governance must confront enormous risks and challenges. This requires us to conduct full democratic consultation in governance, and each governance subject needs to carry out democratic management according to local specific conditions, rather than relying solely on democratic elections. Whole-process people’s democracy includes the “five major forms of democracy” [8]8 The “five major forms of democracy” (五大民主) refer to democratic elections, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision, as outlined in the CPC’s official discourse on whole-process people’s democracy. such as democratic elections and democratic consultation, and can better and comprehensively solve the governance problems of a country with a huge population.

人口规模巨大意味着实现现代化的任务重大，尤其是规模巨大的人口分布在不同地区，对于幅员辽阔的中国来说，不同地区往往存在发展阶段的差异。中国的民主治理面临着前现代社会、现代社会和后现代社会多期叠加的治理任务，意味着治理要面临巨大的风险和挑战。这就要求我们在治理中进行充分的民主协商，各治理主体需要根据当地的具体情况进行民主管理，而不能仅仅依靠民主选举。全过程人民民主包含着民主选举、民主协商等“五大民主”，能够更好地、全过程地解决人口规模巨大国家的治理难题。

(B) Promoting Common Prosperity Requires Implementing Whole-Process People’s Democracy

（二）推动共同富裕要求实行全过程人民民主

Common prosperity is the common aspiration of the broad masses of the people, and it is also a difficult problem that has plagued the world. The Industrial Revolution greatly liberated the productive forces, promoted economic and social development, and raised the level of “prosperity” for some groups. However, due to the inherent defects of capitalist private ownership, the democratic system of the bourgeoisie cannot fundamentally correct this, and therefore cannot achieve common prosperity for all the people. Common prosperity is an important goal of the Communist Party of China in the economic and social sphere. Xi Jinping pointed out: “Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism and the common expectation of the people. In promoting economic and social development, our ultimate goal is to achieve common prosperity for all the people.” [9]9 Xi Jinping, “Stably Promoting Common Prosperity,” Qiushi, no. 20 (2021). The “Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century” incorporates the development of whole-process people’s democracy and the promotion of common prosperity for all the people as core content into the “Ten Clarifications” of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, showing that the two have consistency in their connotations.

共同富裕是广大人民群众的共同心愿，也是困扰世界的难题。工业革命大大解放了生产力，推动了经济社会发展，提升了部分群体的“富裕”水平。然而，由于资本主义私有制固有的缺陷，资产阶级的民主制度无法对其进行根本矫正，也就无法实现全体人民共同富裕。共同富裕是中国共产党在经济社会领域的重要目标，习近平指出：“共同富裕是社会主义的本质要求，是人民群众的共同期盼。我们推动经济社会发展，归根结底是要实现全体人民共同富裕”。《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议》将发展全过程人民民主、推动全体人民共同富裕等作为核心内容纳入习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想“十个明确”中，显示出二者具有内涵上的一致性。

To achieve common prosperity, it is necessary to give full play to the market mechanism and adhere to economic democracy. Modernization is the transformation from a self-sufficient agricultural society based on a natural economy to an industrial society built on a market economy. Giving full play to the market mechanism is an inherent requirement for achieving common prosperity and modernization. A democratic system must be able to guarantee the full play of the market mechanism and mobilize the initiative of market participants; therefore, the economic democracy that goes with it becomes an inevitable requirement. Economic democracy is the application of the theory of popular sovereignty in the economic sphere, requiring that the arrangement of the economic system must also conform to the interests of the majority of the people. Economic democracy not only does not hinder economic freedom, but can better stimulate the initiative of economic agents, improve the efficiency of economic activities, and achieve the unity of economic democracy and market efficiency. People should not only have the right to participate in political and economic life, but also have the practical conditions to participate in political and economic life. Therefore, it is necessary to promote social revolution, develop social productive forces, and eliminate polarization, so as to lay the material foundation for the free and comprehensive development of people. This requires adhering to economic democracy on the basis of the market mechanism. Whole-process people’s democracy, as an all-round, whole-process democracy, includes not only political democracy but also all-round democracy in the economic, cultural, and other spheres. It can enrich the connotation of democracy obscured by the West, better promote the development of productive forces, and achieve common prosperity.

实现共同富裕必须充分发挥市场机制，坚持经济民主。现代化是从自给自足的、以自然经济为基础的农业社会向建立在市场经济基础上的工业社会的转变，充分发挥市场机制是实现共同富裕和现代化的题中之意。民主制度必须能保障充分发挥市场机制，调动市场参与主体的积极性，因而与之配套的经济民主就成为必然要求。经济民主是人民主权理论在经济领域的贯彻，要求经济制度的安排也必须符合大多数人民的利益。经济民主不仅不会妨碍经济自由，反而可以更好地激发经济主体的积极性、提高经济活动的效率，实现经济民主和市场效率的统一。人不仅应该具有参与政治、经济生活的权利，还应该具备参与政治、经济生活的现实条件。因此，必须推动社会革命，发展社会生产力、消灭两极分化，为实现人的自由全面发展奠定物质基础，这要求在市场机制的基础上必须坚持经济民主。全过程人民民主作为全方位、全过程的民主，不仅包含政治民主，还包括经济、文化等全方位的民主，能够丰富被西方遮蔽的民主内涵，更好地推动生产力发展和实现共同富裕。

To achieve common prosperity, it is necessary to persist in giving play to the regulatory role of the government and realize the unity of individual interests and overall interests. The market mechanism can fully develop the productive forces, but it is unable to correct the defects of the market itself. The government must give full play to the role of various policy tools such as taxation, equalization of basic services, and transfer payments. Therefore, it is necessary to adhere to whole-process people’s democracy. On the one hand, it is necessary to guarantee citizens’ economic democracy and give full play to the positive role of the market mechanism; on the other hand, it is necessary to consider the overall interests and achieve consistency between individual interests and overall interests. In this process, the influence of populism must be rejected, and short-term interests must not be satisfied at the expense of long-term interests. The government must have long-term planning, must adhere to development, sharing, and sustainability, fully promote democracy, and at the same time achieve the unity of democracy and centralism. Through full democratic consultation, individual interests and collective will are transformed into the will of the state and government decisions, effectively promoting common prosperity.

实现共同富裕必须坚持发挥政府的调节作用，实现个体利益和整体利益的统一。市场机制能够充分发展生产力，但是无力矫正市场本身的缺陷，必须由政府充分发挥税收、基本服务均等化、转移支付等多种政策工具的作用。因此，必须坚持全过程人民民主，一方面，保障公民的经济民主，充分发挥市场机制的积极作用；另一方面，必须考虑全局利益，实现个体利益和整体利益的一致。在此过程中，必须拒斥民粹主义的影响，不能为满足短期利益而影响长期利益。政府必须有长远规划，必须坚持发展性、共享性和可持续性，充分发扬民主，同时做到民主与集中的统一，通过充分的民主协商，将个人利益要求和集体意志转化为国家意志和政府决定，切实推动共同富裕。

Therefore, achieving common prosperity requires the guarantee of a scientific system design and a democratic system. On the one hand, the democratic system can guarantee the full play of the positive role of the market mechanism and ensure people’s motivation to participate in economic activities; on the other hand, the democratic system must prevent the rise of populism and prevent common prosperity from turning into egalitarianism, or the “big pot rice.” [10]10 “Big pot rice” (大锅饭) refers to the egalitarian distribution system in the era of the planned economy, where everyone received roughly the same remuneration regardless of work contribution, and is used here as a pejorative for equalitarianism. The democratic system must achieve a balance between a people-centered approach and market logic, and whole-process people’s democracy is a scientific concept and institutional system that can guarantee common prosperity.

因此，实现共同富裕必须有科学的制度设计和民主制度的保障。一方面，民主制度可以保障市场机制积极作用的充分发挥，保障人们参与经济活动的动力；另一方面，民主制度必须防止民粹主义抬头，防止共同富裕变成平均主义、“大锅饭”。民主制度必须实现以人民为中心和市场逻辑的平衡，而全过程人民民主是能够保障共同富裕的科学理念和制度体系。

(3) Achieving the Coordination of Material and Cultural-Ethical Progress Requires the Implementation of Whole-Process People’s Democracy

（三）实现物质文明和精神文明相协调要求实行全过程人民民主

Modernization means both the development of social production and the growth of material wealth, and it also requires the creation of a high level of cultural-ethical progress. Western modernization insists on taking capital as the center and unilaterally pursues material interests, neglecting the construction of cultural-ethical progress. This easily leads to problems such as the absence of people’s value goals, the decline of social morality, the lowering of citizens’ moral standards, and insufficient awareness of democratic participation, thereby affecting the comprehensive development of people. Chinese-path modernization not only requires creating abundant material civilization but also requires the coordination of cultural-ethical progress and material civilization, using rich cultural-ethical progress to gather strength for Chinese-path modernization and promote the development of socialist culture. Xi Jinping emphasized: “Without the prosperity and development of socialist culture, there will be no socialist modernization.” The construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress must be based on a certain material civilization. In the process of strengthening the construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress and prospering socialist culture, it is necessary to continuously develop democratic politics and comprehensively develop whole-process people’s democracy.

现代化既意味着社会生产的发展和物质财富的增长，也要求创造高水平的精神文明。西方现代化坚持以资本为中心片面追逐物质利益，忽视了精神文明建设，容易导致人的价值目标缺位、社会道德滑坡、公民道德水平降低、民主参与意识不足等问题，从而影响人的全面发展。中国式现代化不仅要创造丰富的物质文明，还要求精神文明和物质文明相协调，用丰富的精神文明来为中国式现代化凝心聚力，促进社会主义文化发展。习近平强调：“没有社会主义文化繁荣发展，就没有社会主义现代化。”社会主义精神文明建设必须以一定的物质文明为基础，在加强社会主义精神文明建设、繁荣社会主义文化过程中，不断发展民主政治，全面发展全过程人民民主。

The construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress must adhere to taking all the people as the main body and cultivate modern political culture; it must improve people’s level of cultural-ethical progress through the construction of the socialist system, cultivate modern citizens, and enhance the level of modernization in terms of ideology and consciousness. The construction of cultural-ethical progress cannot rely solely on individual ideological and moral self-awareness; it also requires participation in the practice of democratic politics and the cultivation of political culture. At the current stage, modern citizens’ democratic awareness, such as awareness of rights, equality, and fairness, is not yet mature. In some fields, the “parent-official consciousness” [11]11 “Parent-official consciousness” (父母官意识) is a traditional Chinese concept likening local officials to parents of the people, implying a paternalistic and hierarchical relationship that contradicts modern democratic notions of equality and citizens’ rights. and the like remain deeply entrenched. The “official-standard” consciousness and feudal privileges formed over a long period still exist within a certain scope, hindering the enhancement of democratic awareness and also being detrimental to the construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress. The whole-process nature and the people’s subjectivity of whole-process people’s democracy can ensure that the people exercise their democratic rights in democratic elections and democratic consultation, guarantee the people’s right to be masters of the country and to participate extensively in public life, fulfill citizens’ political obligations and responsibilities to the country, continuously enhance the people’s democratic awareness, democratic cognition, and democratic habits, enrich the people’s spiritual life, enable the people to gain a higher sense of value, honor, civic virtue, and sense of ownership in public life, and raise the level of cultural-ethical progress.

社会主义精神文明建设必须坚持以全体人民为主体，培育现代政治文化；必须通过社会主义制度建设，提升人们的精神文明水平，培育现代公民，提升思想意识方面的现代化水平。精神文明建设不能仅靠个体的思想道德自觉，还需要参与民主政治实践和政治文化的培育。当前阶段，现代公民的权利意识、平等意识、公平意识等民主意识并未成熟，在某些领域内的“父母官意识”等仍然根深蒂固，长期以来形成的“官本位”意识、封建特权在一定范围内仍长期存在，阻碍了民主意识的提升，也不利于社会主义精神文明建设。全过程人民民主的全过程性和人民主体性，可以保障人民群众在民主选举和民主协商中践行民主权利，保障人民当家作主和广泛参与公共生活的权利，履行公民对国家的政治义务和责任，不断提升人民群众的民主意识、民主认知和民主习惯，丰富人民群众的精神生活，使人民群众在公共生活中获得更高的价值感、荣誉感、公民美德和主人翁意识，提升精神文明建设水平。

The construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress should adhere to the guiding direction of Marxism, while at the same time being rooted in the excellent traditional Chinese culture and drawing nourishment from Confucianism. The spiritual essence of whole-process people’s democracy includes not only Marxist democratic theory but also the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and it has inherent consistency with the construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress. The concepts of inclusiveness, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and harmony and coexistence contained in the practice of whole-process people’s democracy all come from the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Its democratic practice is also a vivid manifestation of the construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress, which can promote the people’s better participation in the process of democratic consultation and enhance the level of social cultural-ethical progress. At the same time, the emphasis on “the people” and “comprehensiveness” in whole-process people’s democracy is also highly consistent with the concepts of “all people are my brothers and all things are my kind” and “embracing the world with a broad mind” in the excellent traditional Chinese culture. In the process of implementing whole-process people’s democracy, it can continuously enhance collective consciousness and social community consciousness, help enhance social self-awareness and citizens’ moral cultivation, better strengthen cultural confidence and historical confidence, and cultivate modern citizens.

社会主义精神文明建设应该坚持马克思主义的指导方向，同时植根中华优秀传统文化，从儒学中汲取养分。而全过程人民民主的精神实质不仅包含马克思主义民主理论，也包含中华优秀传统文化，与社会主义精神文明建设具有内在一致性。全过程人民民主实践中包含的兼容并包、求同存异、和合共生等理念均来自于中华优秀传统文化，其民主实践也是社会主义精神文明建设的生动体现，能够推动人民群众更好地参与民主协商过程，提升社会精神文明水平。同时，全过程人民民主中强调“人民”与“全面”也与中华优秀传统文化中“民胞物与”“胸怀天下”的理念高度契合，在贯彻全过程人民民主过程中能够不断提升集体意识和社会共同体意识，有助于提升社会自主意识和公民道德修养，更好坚定文化自信和历史自信，培养现代公民。

Furthermore, other features of Chinese-path modernization, such as the harmonious development of humanity and nature and the pursuit of peaceful development, all require the institutional guarantee of whole-process people’s democracy. For example, among the many factors hindering the harmonious development of humanity and nature, the difficulty of balancing short-term and long-term interests is a significant limiting factor. Whole-process people’s democracy, with its full-process nature and people-centered development philosophy, provides a guarantee for scientific and democratic decision-making. This requires that decision-makers neither neglect ecological and environmental protection for the sake of short-term interests nor overlook the realization of the people’s fundamental interests for the sake of ecological protection, thereby promoting the genuine implementation of harmonious development between humanity and nature. For another example, the so-called “democratic peace theory” of the West has not achieved world peace and stability. In contrast, China’s whole-process people’s democracy, by taking into account the interests of the people across all fields and all aspects, strengthens the common interests of the Chinese people and the people of the world, promotes the democratization of international relations and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and applies the concept of consultative democracy to global governance based on extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, which is conducive to truly realizing peaceful development.

此外，中国式现代化的其他特征，如人与自然和谐发展、走和平发展道路，都要求有全过程人民民主的制度保障。例如，阻碍人与自然和谐发展的因素有很多，其中难以平衡短期利益和长期利益是重要的限制性因素，而全过程人民民主包含的全过程性和以人民为中心的发展理念是实现科学决策和民主决策的保障，这要求决策者既不会由于短期利益而忽视生态环境保护，也不会由于保护生态环境而忽视人民根本利益的实现，从而促进真正落实人与自然和谐发展。再如，西方所谓的“民主和平论”并没有实现世界的和平与稳定，而中国的全过程人民民主通过将全领域、全方位的人民群众利益考虑在内，强化了中国人民与世界人民的共同利益，推动了国际关系民主化和人类命运共同体建设，将协商民主理念应用于共商共建共享的全球治理中，有利于真正实现和平发展。

IV. Whole-Process People’s Democracy Is the Political Path to Promoting the Realization of Chinese-Path Modernization

四、全过程人民民主是促进中国式现代化实现的政治路径

Whole-process people’s democracy is one of the nine essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization, the institutional advantage of the political system of Chinese-path modernization, and also the political path to realizing Chinese-path modernization. Whole-process people’s democracy encompasses five major links: democratic elections, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision. It can effectively address major issues in national development, difficult problems in social governance, and trivial matters concerning the people’s daily lives. It can profoundly shape and enhance national governance capacity, better transforming the institutional advantages of whole-process people’s democracy into national governance effectiveness, and promoting the process of Chinese-path modernization at all key points and in all key links.

全过程人民民主是中国式现代化的九个本质要求之一，是中国式现代化的政治制度优势，也是实现中国式现代化的政治路径。全过程人民民主包含民主选举、民主协商、民主决策、民主管理、民主监督五大环节，可以很好地解决国家发展中的大事、社会治理中的难事和人民群众身边的琐事，能够深刻塑造并提升国家治理能力，将全过程人民民主的制度优势更好地转化为国家治理效能，在各个重要节点和重要环节推动中国式现代化进程。

(I) Coordinating the Relationship Between Democratic Elections and Democratic Consultation to Advance Chinese-Path Modernization

（一）协调好民主选举与民主协商的关系，推进中国式现代化

Chinese-path modernization requires solving many difficult problems. From the perspective of information flow and processing, electoral democracy is more suitable for simple, homogeneous, one-way “point-to-point” information processing with less interaction between pieces of information. Consultative democracy, through a “point-to-multipoint” and “face-to-face” network information structure, is more suitable for handling complex, diverse, and conflicting interest-related problems. Electoral democracy simplifies complex interest demands into yes-or-no information, reducing the cost of information transmission. Consultative democracy requires complex information interaction, making the content of information transmission difficult to encode simply, and the cost of transmitting information and conducting communication is higher. Electoral democracy and consultative democracy each have different scopes of application and should be used in a targeted manner to play their respective roles in solving different types of difficult problems in national governance.

中国式现代化需要解决许多难以解决的难题。从信息的流通和处理来看，选举民主更适合于进行简单的、同质性的、单向的“点对点”信息处理，信息间互动较少；而协商民主通过“点对面”“面对面”的网络信息结构，更适合处理复杂的、多元的、具有冲突性的利益难题。选举民主将复杂的利益诉求简化为是或否的信息，降低了信息传播成本；而协商民主需要复杂的信息互动，信息传输内容较难进行简单编码，传播信息、进行沟通的成本更高。选举民主和协商民主的适应范围各有不同，在解决国家治理不同性质的难题中应该有针对性分别发挥二者的作用。

Democratic elections should be fully implemented to provide an institutional carrier and a mechanism of legitimacy for China’s modernization. First, democratic elections provide solid institutional support for the source of public power. Democratic elections can produce deputies to people’s congresses at all levels, from which the leading personnel and members of the standing committees of people’s congresses, people’s governments, supervisory organs, adjudicatory organs, and procuratorial organs at the corresponding levels are elected, forming a system of state power and an organizational system of state power based on the people’s congresses, providing an institutional carrier for Chinese-path modernization. Second, in the process of modernizing national governance, due to the large number of governance issues, it is impossible to conduct in-depth and full consultation on all matters. The efficiency advantage of democratic elections in information processing can be leveraged. Democratic elections, through the principle of majority rule, reflect the will of the majority and possess legitimacy and high decision-making efficiency in many decision-making areas. Electoral democracy is a basic form of democracy. The forms and rules of democratic elections must be fully respected, and the fairness and degree of institutionalization of democratic elections must be ensured. It is necessary to ensure the extensive participation of the people in national governance, ensure that the people are the masters of the country, mobilize the people to devote themselves as masters of the country to the cause of socialist reform and development, and provide reliable, high-quality builders for Chinese-path modernization.

应充分做好民主选举，为中国的现代化建设提供制度载体和正当性机制。首先，民主选举为公共权力的来源提供了坚实的制度支撑。民主选举能够产生各级人大代表，由此选举产生本级人大常委会、人民政府、监察机关、审判机关、检察机关的领导人员和组成人员，形成以人民代表大会为基础的政权体系和政权组织制度，为中国式现代化提供制度载体。其次，在国家治理现代化过程中，由于治理议题较多，不可能在所有事情上都进行深度的、充分的协商，可以发挥民主选举在信息处理上的效率优势。民主选举通过多数决定原则反映了多数人的意愿，在许多决策领域具有正当性和较高的决策效率。选举民主是民主的基本形式，必须充分尊重民主选举的形式和规则，保障民主选举的公正性和制度化程度。确保人民群众广泛参与国家治理，确保人民当家作主，动员人民以国家主人翁的身份投身于社会主义改革和发展事业，为中国式现代化提供可靠的、高素质的建设者。

The unique advantages of consultative democracy should be fully leveraged to solve complex governance problems in the process of advancing Chinese-path modernization. First, accompanying the transformation from a traditional society to a modern society, the subjects of social interests are increasingly diversified, and conflicts of interest exist among different groups. Democratic consultation can not only achieve information transmission but also realize high-quality information interaction and full consultation. On this basis, people can make decisions that conform to the wishes and interests of multiple subjects. Democratic consultation conforms to the democratic spirit of “discussing matters when there is something to discuss,” has an inherent compatibility with the fundamental interests of the people, and can effectively achieve the aggregation of information. Second, China’s modernization is a systematic project. Full democratic consultation must be conducted on long-term plans affecting Chinese-path modernization. Although consultative decision-making may make the process and procedures more complex, it helps reduce repeated changes and decision-making failures after implementation, helps form long-term consensus on major issues concerning reform, development, and stability, and enhances the scientific nature of decision-making. Third, to promote the smooth realization of Chinese-path modernization, many complex problems need to be solved, and even more so, people’s hearts need to be united. Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front, develop whole-process people’s democracy, always uphold great unity and great solidarity, and maximize the cohesion of joint efforts for struggle.” [12]12 Xi Jinping, “Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects – Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China” (October 16, 2022), in *Selected Readings from Important Documents Since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China*, Vol. 1, Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2024, p. 39. China’s democratic consultation has a rigorous institutional system and specialized consultative institutions such the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), covering multiple forms including consultation between political parties, consultation at the CPPCC, and consultation at people’s congresses. This helps unite all forces that can be united around the goal of building Chinese-path modernization and gather the mighty force to drive modernization.

应当充分发挥协商民主的独特优势，以解决中国式现代化推进过程中的复杂性治理问题。首先，伴随着传统社会向现代社会的转变，社会利益主体日益多元化，不同群体的利益存在冲突之处，民主协商不仅能够实现信息传递，还可以实现高质量的信息交互和充分的协商，在此基础上人们可以做出符合多元主体愿望与利益的决策。民主协商符合“有事好商量”的民主精神，与人民根本利益具有内在契合性，可以有效实现信息的聚合。其次，中国的现代化建设是一个系统工程，围绕着影响中国式现代化的长远规划必须进行充分的民主协商。虽然协商式决策会使得流程和过程更为复杂，但是这有助于减少决策执行后的反复变化和决策失败，有助于在事关改革、发展、稳定的大事中形成长期共识、提升决策科学性。再次，推动中国式现代化的顺利实现需要解决众多复杂的难题，更需要凝聚人心。习近平指出：要“巩固和发展最广泛的爱国统一战线，发展全过程人民民主，始终坚持大团结大联合，最大限度凝聚起共同奋斗的力量”。中国的民主协商有严密的制度体系，有人民政协这样专门的协商机构，覆盖了政党协商、政协协商、人大协商等多种形态，有助于围绕着中国式现代化的建设目标团结一切可以团结的力量，凝聚起推动现代化的磅礴力量。

Democratic consultation and democratic elections should be combined to make them complement and supplement each other. First, fully absorb the advantages of both democratic elections and democratic consultation. Democratic elections are more of a “rigid” democracy, while consultative democracy is a “flexible” democracy. The organic combination of the two can fully take into account the will of the majority and the reasonable demands of the minority. Democratic elections are more often based on the system of people’s congresses as the institutional carrier, while democratic consultation is more often based on the system of political consultation as the institutional carrier. The organic combination of the two helps maintain social stability and social harmony in the process of modernization. Second, implement the spirit of democratic consultation in all aspects of democratic elections, coordinating representativeness and breadth, diversity and unity. Democratic elections emphasize the subordination of the minority to the majority in the voting process, while democratic consultation emphasizes consultation between the majority and the minority before voting. Full democratic consultation helps achieve high-quality democratic elections in the voting process. Increasing consultation efforts in the process of candidate selection helps enhance the scientific nature of democratic elections and better elect leaders and builders for Chinese-path modernization. Third, apply the legitimacy provided by democratic elections to the process and various links of democratic consultation. When democratic consultation is difficult, adopting a voting system in links where there are no major conflicts of interest can provide a popular will foundation and a mechanism of legitimacy for further democratic consultation. On this basis, consensus can be better consolidated, and various governance problems that may be encountered in the process of modernization can be better solved.

应当将民主协商与民主选举结合起来，推动民主选举和民主协商相辅相成、互为补充。第一，充分吸收民主选举和民主协商的优点。民主选举更多体现为“刚性”民主，而协商民主则是“柔性”民主，二者有机结合能够充分兼顾多数人的意志和少数人的合理要求。民主选举更多以人民代表大会制度为制度载体，而民主协商更多以政治协商制度为制度载体，二者有机结合有助于在现代化建设中保持社会稳定和社会和谐。第二，将民主协商的精神贯彻到民主选举的各个环节，统筹广泛性和代表性、多样性和一致性。民主选举强调投票环节的少数服从多数，民主协商强调投票前的多数与少数进行协商，充分的民主协商有助于实现投票环节高质量的民主选举。在候选人产生过程中加大协商力度，有助于提升民主选举的科学性，更好地选举出中国式现代化的领导者和建设者。第三，将民主选举提供的正当性应用到民主协商的过程与各环节中。在民主协商存在难度时，在不存在重大利益冲突的环节采取票决制度，可以为进一步进行民主协商提供民意基础和正当性机制，并在此基础上更好地凝聚共识，更好解决现代化建设过程中可能遇到的各种各样的治理难题。

(II) Advancing Chinese-Path Modernization Through Democratic Decision-Making

（二）通过民主决策推进中国式现代化

Compared with the modernization of the developed Western countries, Chinese-path modernization is a modernization realized rapidly within a relatively short period. This leads to the concentrated emergence of some problems that could otherwise be digested and solved over time, making public decision-making more difficult to achieve in the process of China’s modernization. This requires overcoming and solving these problems through the democratic decision-making of whole-process people’s democracy.

与西方先发国家的现代化相比，中国式现代化是在较短时间内快速实现的现代化，这导致一些可以依靠时间消化、解决的难题在较短时间内会集中涌现，导致在中国的现代化建设过程中公共决策更加难以达成，这就需要全过程人民民主的民主决策加以克服和解决。

First, the democratic decision-making of whole-process people’s democracy can better respond to the various risks in China’s modernization construction. China has a large population and a vast territory, but its development is unbalanced and inadequate, and it simultaneously faces many risks of different forms, including those characteristic of pre-industrial and industrial societies. The unpredictability, uncertainty, and contingency of the risk society, among multiple factors, compound to cause the frequent failure of existing risk prevention mechanisms. It is necessary to step out of the misconception of technocratic governance, “absorb the public’s risk knowledge based on experience, common sense, intuition, and value judgment as the basis for risk decision-making,”[13]13 The quotation is from the Chinese academic literature on risk decision-making; the original source is not specified in the text. and establish a composite decision-making structure that includes political decision-making, expert decision-making, and citizen decision-making. Furthermore, adhering to democratic decision-making helps improve the public nature, fairness, and inclusiveness of decisions, reduces the risk of political disorder, and ultimately forms a rational, tolerant, and civilized public culture.

首先，全过程人民民主的民主决策能够更好地应对中国现代化建设中的各种风险。中国人口众多、幅员辽阔，但是发展不平衡、不充分，且同时面临带有前工业社会、工业社会性质等不同形式的诸多风险。风险社会的不可预测性、不确定性和偶发性等多重因素叠加，导致现有的风险预防机制经常失灵，必须走出技术专家治国的误区，“吸纳公众建立在经验、常识、直觉和价值判断基础之上的风险知识作为风险决策的依据”，建立起包含政治决策、专家决策与公民决策在内的复合决策结构。此外，坚持民主决策有助于提高决策的公共性、公平性和普惠性，降低政治失序的风险，最终形成理性、包容、文明的公共文化。

Second, the democratic decision-making of whole-process people’s democracy can better promote decision-making innovation in the process of Chinese-path modernization construction. In an information society, the widespread application of new media technology has increased the speed of information dissemination, helping public power more conveniently grasp social dynamics. By applying big data technology and artificial intelligence technology, the government can turn the disadvantage of having many governance objects into the advantage of having many data points, and establish a mechanism for big-data-assisted decision-making. By continuously improving the granularity of data, it can more scientifically, dynamically, and systematically grasp the people’s aspiration for a better life, grasp the overall needs of the people and the special needs of individual groups, identify the difficulties and blockages in governance from the people’s demands, determine governance issues, and learn about the operational status of grassroots public power from the rich mine of big data. The democratic decision-making of whole-process people’s democracy has practical implications in terms of public decision-making efficiency, technological innovation efficiency, and field innovation efficiency, enabling more timely decision-making innovation.

其次，全过程人民民主的民主决策能够更好地推动中国式现代化建设过程中的决策创新。在信息化社会中，新媒体技术的广泛应用提高了信息的传播速度，有助于公共权力更便捷地掌握社会动态。通过应用大数据技术和人工智能技术，政府可以变治理对象多的劣势为数据点位多的优势，并建立大数据辅助决策的机制，通过不断提升数据的颗粒度，能够更科学、动态、系统地把握人民群众对美好生活的向往，把握人民群众的整体性需求和个别群体的特殊需求，从人民群众的诉求中把握治理的难点、堵点，确定治理的议题，从大数据的富矿中获悉基层公共权力的运行状况。全过程人民民主的民主决策在公共决策效能、技术创新效能和场域创新效能方面都有其实践含义，能够更及时地进行决策创新。

Third, the democratic decision-making under whole-process people’s democracy adheres to the unity of democracy and centralism, and can respond to the complex tasks and difficulties that may arise in modernization construction. Democratic decision-making under whole-process people’s democracy has the characteristics and advantages of democratic centralism: on the one hand, by broadly bringing numerous stakeholders and risk-related parties into the policy process and encouraging them to fully exercise the democratic spirit, correct decisions can be formed on the basis of pooling wisdom; on the other hand, it eliminates the drawbacks of Western-style democracy, where discussion never leads to a decision and decisions are never implemented. Fully exercising democratic decision-making under the leadership of the Communist Party of China can not only fully mobilize the initiative of the people but also solve the problem of effective decision-making, enhance the institutionalization and standardization of decision-making, avoid populist, campaign-style governance and decision-making models, truly achieve a balance between democracy and centralism and a unity of democracy and efficiency, and effectively solve the complex governance problems in the modernization construction process that transcend the people’s intuition and experience.

再次，全过程人民民主下的民主决策坚持民主与集中相统一，能够应对现代化建设中可能出现的复杂性任务和难题。全过程人民民主下的民主决策具有民主集中制的特点和优势：一方面，通过广泛地吸纳众多利益主体和风险相关者进入政策过程，鼓励他们充分发扬民主精神，可以在集思广益的基础上形成正确决策；另一方面，杜绝西式民主中议而不决、决而不行的弊端。在中国共产党的领导下充分发扬民主决策，既能够充分发挥人民群众的积极性，还可以解决有效决策的问题，提升决策的制度化和规范化水平，避免民粹主义式的、运动式的治理模式和决策模式，真正做到民主与集中的平衡、民主与效率的统一，切实解决现代化建设过程中超越人民群众直觉和经验的复杂性治理问题。

(3) Promoting Chinese-Path Modernization Through Democratic Management and Democratic Supervision

（三）通过民主管理与民主监督推进中国式现代化

The realization of Chinese-path modernization will mean, for the first time in human history, building a large country with a population of over one billion into a modern society. In this process, the democratic system should not only play a role in providing legitimacy and justification but also effectively enhance governance efficiency. Whole-process people’s democracy means that democracy is not only a scientific concept or institutional rule but is also internal to the daily life of the people; it is a problem-oriented democracy. Through democratic management and democratic supervision, it can effectively ensure the realization of citizens’ rights, promote the effective operation of public power, truly mobilize the people’s initiative and sense of ownership, and promote the realization of Chinese-path modernization.

中国式现代化的实现将意味着在人类历史上第一次将一个超过十亿人口的大国建成现代社会。在这个过程中，民主制度不仅应发挥提供合法性和正当性的作用，还应当切实提升治理效能。全过程人民民主意味着民主不仅是科学理念或者制度规则，而且是内在于人民群众日常生活之中的，是以问题为导向的民主。通过民主管理和民主监督，能够切实保障公民权利的实现，推动公共权力的有效运转，真正调动人民群众的积极性和主人翁意识，推动实现中国式现代化。

Democratic management can consolidate the participation initiative of hundreds of millions of people. The people participate in public affairs through direct democratic management, which centrally embodies the principal position of the people. The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC put forward requirements for developing grassroots democracy: “Improve the mechanism for grassroots self-governance under the leadership of grassroots Party organizations, strengthen grassroots organizational construction, improve the grassroots direct democracy system and work system, and enhance the effectiveness of urban and rural community residents’ self-management, self-service, self-education, and self-supervision.”[14]14 Quotation from the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in October 2022. In concrete practice, the people participate in democratic management through means such as small-courtyard councils (小院议事会) and democratic consultation meetings. The government combines people’s participation with the consultative governance of “localized capable individuals” by introducing moral governance resources such as village sage councils (乡贤议事会), and does a good job of grassroots governance through the method of “joint planning, joint construction, joint management, and joint sharing.” Moreover, democratic management is also reflected in social organizations such as foundations and social service agencies, as well as in market entities, and in the people’s direct participation in public affairs through institutionalized online political inquiry platforms. By exercising the right to democratic management, the people have orderly channels for participation in economic democracy, social democracy, and political democracy. The macro-level national democratic system is organically combined with specific grassroots democratic systems, forming a grassroots governance community of collaborative co-governance.

民主管理能够凝聚亿万人民的参与积极性，人民群众通过直接民主管理的方式参与公共事务，集中体现了人民群众的主体地位。党的二十大报告对发展基层民主提出了要求：“健全基层党组织领导的基层群众自治机制，加强基层组织建设，完善基层直接民主制度体系和工作体系，增强城乡社区群众自我管理、自我服务、自我教育、自我监督的实效。”在具体实践中，人民群众通过小院议事会、民主恳谈会等方式参与民主管理，政府通过引入乡贤议事会等道德治理资源将人民群众参与和“本土化能人”协商治理相结合，通过“共谋、共建、共管、共享”的方式做好基层治理。不仅如此，民主管理还体现在基金会、社会服务机构等社会组织以及市场主体中，体现在人民群众直接通过制度化的网络问政平台参与公共事务上。通过行使民主管理权利，人民群众在经济民主、社会民主和政治民主等方面有了有序参与的渠道，国家宏观层面的民主制度与基层具体的民主制度有机结合，形成了协同共治的基层治理共同体。

Democratic supervision aims to oversee the operation of public power, ensuring that public power can operate in an orderly and effective manner during the modernization construction process. Democratic supervision includes both mass supervision with the people as the main body and supervision by democratic parties and other public departments. Through the people’s democratic supervision, such as village affairs supervision committees and grassroots democratic supervision, the specific status of public power operation can be dynamically and accurately grasped, blockages and pain points in public power operation can be diagnosed, and thereby the mechanisms, systems, and institutions of public power operation can be improved, forming a positive interaction between civil rights and public power, enhancing the people’s motivation and enthusiasm for participating in governance, and maximizing their initiative to build a mighty force for promoting modernization. The democratic supervision of democratic parties focuses on major issues concerning the overall and long-term development and the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of concern to the people, carrying out supervision inspections or special supervision, and conducting consultative supervision by offering opinions, criticism, and suggestions, ensuring the stable and orderly operation of public power. Supervision by other public departments, such as people’s congress supervision, administrative supervision, and disciplinary inspection and supervision, are all effective constraints on the power operation process within the public power system. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, various public organs are organically connected and mutually coordinated, with each subject complementing each other’s strengths and acting together, avoiding the institutional drawbacks of Western-style democracy where checks and balances lead to mutual obstruction, and effectively coordinating governance resources. In summary, democratic supervision includes multiple methods such as people’s congress supervision, administrative supervision, disciplinary inspection and supervision, judicial supervision, mass supervision, public opinion supervision, and supervision by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The overall configuration is scientific and the operation is efficient. It can adhere to a problem-oriented approach, effectively realize the effective supervision of public power, ensure the standardized and orderly operation of power, and at the same time avoid the occurrence of Western-style democracy’s veto politics and “theater politics” where opposition is for opposition’s sake, promoting the orderly and effective operation of public power under supervision.

民主监督旨在监督公共权力的运行，确保现代化建设过程中公共权力能够有序、有效运转。民主监督既包括以人民群众为主体的群众监督，也包括民主党派和其他公共部门的监督。通过人民群众的民主监督，例如村务监督委员会、基层民主监督，可以动态地、准确地掌握公共权力运行的具体状况，对公共权力运行中的堵点和痛点进行诊断，借此改进公共权力的运行机制、体制和制度，形成公民权利和公共权力的良性互动，提高人民群众参与治理的动力和热情，能够最大程度地调动其积极性，为推动现代化建设构筑起磅礴力量。民主党派的民主监督围绕事关全局和长远发展的重大事项以及人民群众关注的急难愁盼问题，开展监督检查或专项监督，以提出意见、批评、建议的方式进行协商式监督，保障公共权力的稳定、有序运行。其他公共部门的监督，例如人大监督、行政监督、监察监督等，都是公共权力体系内部对权力运行流程的有效制约，在中国共产党的领导下，各公共机关内部有机贯通、相互协调，各主体间优势互补又共同作用，避免了西式民主相互掣肘的体制弊端，能够有效协调治理资源。总之，民主监督包含人大监督、行政监督、监察监督、司法监督、群众监督、舆论监督和人民政协监督等多种监督方式，整体配置科学，运行高效，能够坚持以问题为导向，切实实现了对公共权力的有效监督，能够保障权力运行规范有序，同时避免了西式民主的否决性政治、“剧场政治”为反对而反对等情况的发生，推动公共权力在监督下有序、有效运转。

V. Conclusion

五、结语

Chinese-path modernization is a new form of human modernization, and whole-process people’s democracy is a new form of human political civilization. Chinese-path modernization is a socialist modernization led by the Communist Party of China. Whole-process people’s democracy is a democratic system suitable for China’s national conditions and aligned with the goals of Chinese-path modernization. The five major characteristics of Chinese-path modernization must rely on the democratic values and institutional guarantees of whole-process people’s democracy to be realized. The five major democratic links of whole-process people’s democracy can promote the smooth realization of Chinese-path modernization in multiple dimensions, including information guarantee mechanisms, optimizing risk decision-making, mobilizing the people’s initiative, and optimizing the operation of public power. Only by examining whole-process people’s democracy from the perspective of Chinese-path modernization can its core connotation and important significance be understood. In the future, we will continue to advance whole-process people’s democracy, constantly improve democratic forms, enrich democratic connotations, continuously enhance the effectiveness of whole-process people’s democracy, and realize Chinese-path modernization faster and better.

中国式现代化是人类现代化的新形态，而全过程人民民主是人类政治文明的新形态。中国式现代化是中国共产党领导的社会主义现代化，全过程人民民主是适合中国国情、符合中国式现代化目标的民主制度，中国式现代化的五大特征必须依靠全过程人民民主的民主价值和制度保障才能实现。全过程人民民主的五大民主环节能够在信息保障机制、优化风险决策、调动人民群众积极性、优化公共权力运行等多个维度推动中国式现代化的顺利实现。只有将全过程人民民主放在中国式现代化的视域下审视才能理解其核心内涵与重要意义。未来，我们将持续推进全过程人民民主，不断健全民主形式，丰富民主内涵，不断提升全过程人民民主的效能，更快更好地实现中国式现代化。

Online Editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心