A Completely New Political System Grown from China’s Soil

Core Summary

核心提要

● It is precisely this universality that embodies the universal features and common values of “governance of a great power” and “governance by institutions” of China’s People’s Congress system within the political civilization of all mankind, laying a common value and cultural foundation for exchanges in political civilization between China’s People’s Congress and parliaments of other countries, and for jointly promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

●正是这种普遍性，体现了我国人大制度在全人类政治文明中“大国之治”“制度之治”的普遍特征和共同价值，为我国人大与世界各国开展政治文明交流、共同推动构建人类命运共同体奠定了共同的价值文化基础。

● It is precisely this particularity that reveals the essential socialist democratic characteristics and political attributes of China’s People’s Congress system, demonstrating the notable advanced nature, people-centeredness, and superiority of the socialist democratic political system.

●正是这种特殊性，昭示了我国人大制度的社会主义民主本质特征和政治属性，展现出社会主义民主政治制度显著的先进性、人民性和优越性。

● It is precisely this difference that displays the Chinese characteristics, the characteristics of the times, and the characteristics of practice of China’s People’s Congress system.

●正是这种差异性，显示了我国人大制度的中国特色、时代特色、实践特色。

In his important speech at the conference celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the National People’s Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the People’s Congress system is the fruit of the Chinese Communist Party leading the Chinese people through arduous exploration and long-term struggle; it is a completely new political system grown from China’s soil, and a great creation in the history of human political systems. Practice has proven that China’s People’s Congress system possesses distinct essential features, significant institutional advantages, and strong governance effectiveness. From the perspective of comparative political philosophy, China’s People’s Congress system exhibits universal characteristics within the democratic forms of human political civilization, and presents particularities and differences when compared with the democratic system models of Western capitalist countries and the democratic political paradigms of other socialist countries.

习近平总书记在庆祝全国人民代表大会成立70周年大会上的重要讲话中指出，人民代表大会制度是中国共产党领导中国人民艰辛探索长期奋斗的成果，是从中国土壤中生长起来的全新政治制度，是人类政治制度史上的伟大创造。实践证明，我国人大制度具有鲜明的本质特征、显著的制度优势和强大的治理效能。从比较政治哲学角度来看，我国人大制度在人类政治文明的民主形态中具有普遍性特征，在与西方资本主义国家民主制度模式、与其他社会主义国家民主政治范式的比较中，呈现出特殊性、差异性特点。

China’s People’s Congress System Possesses Universality; It Is a Splendid Flower of Democracy in the Garden of World Political Civilization

我国人大制度具有普遍性，是世界政治文明百花园中一朵绚丽多彩的民主之花

In the process of leading the people to explore the establishment of China’s People’s Congress system and to create the new China’s constitutional system, our Party adhered to proceeding from China’s national conditions and reality, studied and analyzed the beneficial achievements of ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign political civilization, especially the democratic political models and constitutional legal systems of countries around the world. It not only critically referenced the practices of capitalist countries such as Britain, France, and the United States, but also deeply studied and drew upon the successful experiences of socialist countries like the Soviet Union, referred to the major achievements of democratic political construction in other developing countries, and paid particular attention to absorbing the common values and beneficial experiences of the international community regarding democracy and the rule of law.

我们党在领导人民探索建立我国人大制度和创制新中国宪法制度过程中，坚持从我国国情和实际出发，研究分析古今中外政治文明的有益成果，尤其是世界各国民主政治模式和宪法法律制度，既重点批判参考了英国、美国、法国等资本主义国家的做法，也深度学习借鉴了苏联等社会主义国家的成功经验，参考了其他发展中国家民主政治建设的重大成果，还特别重视汲取国际社会关于民主法治建设的共同价值和有益经验。

Historically, the People’s Congress system is the state form of government and the fundamental political system established by China’s Constitution. On June 14, 1954, Comrade Mao Zedong said in his speech on the draft Constitution of the People’s Republic of China: “Our Constitution belongs to the socialist type of constitution. We take our own experience as the main basis, and also refer to the good things in the constitutions of the Soviet Union and the people’s democratic countries. Speaking of constitutions, the bourgeoisie was the pioneer. Whether in Britain, France, or the United States, the bourgeoisie all had a revolutionary period, and it was then that they began to draft constitutions. We cannot completely negate bourgeois democracy and say that their constitutions have no place in history.” Mao Zedong emphasized: “Our Constitution has our national characteristics, but it also carries an international character”; it is “a combination of domestic experience and international experience.”

从历史上看，人民代表大会制度是我国宪法确立的国家政体和根本政治制度。1954年6月14日，毛泽东同志在关于中华人民共和国宪法草案的讲话中说：“我们的宪法是属于社会主义宪法类型的。我们是以自己的经验为主，也参考了苏联和各人民民主国家宪法中好的东西。讲到宪法，资产阶级是先行的。英国也好，法国也好，美国也好，资产阶级都有过革命时期，宪法就是他们在那个时候开始搞起的。我们对资产阶级民主不能一笔抹杀，说他们的宪法在历史上没有地位。”毛泽东强调指出：“我们的宪法有我们的民族特色，但也带有国际性”，“是本国经验和国际经验的结合。”

Internationally, peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom are the common values of all mankind, and are also the lofty goals of our country and the Chinese nation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Peace and development are our common

从国际上看，和平、发展、公平、正义、民主、自由，是全人类共同价值，也是我们国家和中华民族的崇高目标。习近平总书记指出：“和平与发展是我们的共同事业，公平正义是我们的共同理想，民主自由是我们的共同追求。”全人类的共同价值，当然是我国人大制度弘扬的共同价值；全人类的共同理想和共同追求，必然是我国人大制度追求的崇高理想和目标。我国人大制度确认民主具有普遍性，坚持把民主视为社会主义的生命和核心价值观的重要内容，把实现每个人的自由全面发展和全人类彻底解放作为崇高目标，把尊重和保障人权作为各个国家的共同使命，弘扬全人类共同价值，推动国际关系民主化、法治化，推动构建人类命运共同体。

From the perspective of political-philosophical principles, China’s People’s Congress system falls within the category of “representative systems” or “systems of representation.” Many of the democratic concepts and terms it employs—such as constitution, form of government, legislative power, executive power, citizen, voter, the right to vote and the right to be elected—and many of the important principles it follows—such as the principle of national sovereignty, the democratic principle, the rule-of-law principle, the principle of human rights, the principle of fairness and justice, the principle of checks and supervision of power, and the principle of equality before the law—as well as certain names of democratic institutions it adopts—such as the representative system, the electoral system, the session system, the voting system, the committee system, the constitutional oath system, and the constitutional review system—and certain mechanisms through which it operates—such as the division-of-labor and cooperation mechanism in which powers are mutually divided and coordinated to ensure the unified and effective operation of national governance; democratic selection and decision-making mechanisms such as democratic voting, the minority submitting to the majority, and the majority respecting the minority, to ensure the full realization of common democratic values; the chief-executive responsibility mechanism to ensure the swift and orderly operation of the administrative system; the mechanism by which judicial subjects independently exercise their powers according to law to ensure the fair and efficient operation of the judicial system; and the checks-and-supervision mechanism that uses power to check power to prevent corruption and abuse of power—all of these, within the scope of world political civilization, possess many commonalities and universals. These important concepts and terms, principles and ideas, institutional names, and operational mechanisms, having been integrated into the construction of the democratic political system led by our Party, are endowed with rich and profound Chinese-style connotations, proclaim the Chinese nation’s value pursuit of democracy and the rule of law, and embody the essential characteristic of the Chinese people being the masters of the country.

从政治哲学原理上看，我国人大制度属于“代议制”“代表制”范畴，它所使用的许多民主概念名词，如宪法、政体、立法权、行政权、公民、选民、选举权和被选举权等，它所遵循的某些重要原则，如国家主权原则、民主原则、法治原则、人权原则、公平正义原则、权力制约监督原则、法律面前人人平等原则等，它所采用的某些民主制度名称，如代表制度、选举制度、会期制度、表决制度、委员会制度、宪法宣誓制度、合宪性审查制度等，它所运行的某些机制，如权力彼此分工、相互配合的分工合作机制，以保证国家治理统一有效运行；民主表决、少数服从多数、多数尊重少数等民主选择和决策机制，以保证民主共同价值充分实现；行政首长负责机制，以保证行政制度快捷有序运行；司法主体依法独立行使职权机制，以确保司法制度公正高效运作；以权力制约权力的制约监督机制，以防止权力腐败和滥用等等，在世界政治文明范畴中，都具有许多共同性和普遍性。这些重要概念名词、原则理念、制度名称、运行机制等融入我们党领导的民主政治制度建设，被赋予丰富深刻的中国式内涵，昭示着中华民族对民主法治的价值追求，体现着中国人民当家作主的本质特征。

From the perspective of a community with a shared future for mankind, China proposes building a community with a shared future for mankind, emphasizing that the future and destiny of every nation, every country, and every individual are closely linked together, and that we must jointly promote the building of a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and clean and beautiful. Building a community with a shared future for mankind requires forming the greatest common denominator and possessing the support of relatively common value ideas and concepts, purposes and principles to follow, interests and goals to pursue, organizational systems and mechanisms, and institutional norms and safeguards. Facing the world, China’s People’s Congress system promotes the common values of all humanity and is the fundamental political system for promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

从人类命运共同体看，我国提出构建人类命运共同体，强调每个民族、每个国家、每个人的前途命运都紧紧联系在一起，要共同推动建设持久和平、普遍安全、共同繁荣、开放包容、清洁美丽的世界。构建人类命运共同体，需要形成最大公约数，具备相对共同的价值思想理念、宗旨原则遵循、利益目标追求、组织体系机制、制度规范保障等要件支撑。面向世界，我国人大制度弘扬全人类共同价值，是推动构建人类命运共同体的根本政治制度。

From the perspective of democratic practice, after China’s National People’s Congress became a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1984, it has sent delegations to attend the IPU Assembly, some special meetings, and thematic seminars, playing an active role in fields such as peace and security, economic and social development, international law, human rights, democracy, and gender issues. A series of important foreign affairs activities of China’s People’s Congress have demonstrated the Chinese wisdom of China’s whole-process people’s democracy, embodied the democratic ideals, democratic consensus, and democratic pursuit of all humanity, and represent the most vivid Chinese practice of promoting exchanges and mutual learning among human political civilizations.

从民主实践看，我国全国人大1984年成为各国议会联盟成员后，派团出席议联大会、一些特别会议和专题研讨会，在和平与安全、经济和社会发展、国际法、人权、民主、性别问题等领域发挥了积极作用。我国人大的一系列重要外事活动，彰显了我国全过程人民民主的中国智慧，体现了全人类的民主理想、民主共识和民主追求，是推动人类政治文明交流互鉴最生动的中国实践。

Over the past 70-plus years, the great achievements our Party has led the people in making in developing people’s democracy have enriched world democratic theory and practice and contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized and pointed out that we should draw on the beneficial achievements of human political civilization, but we will never copy the models of Western political systems. We are willing to continue, together with all countries and peoples in the world that pursue peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom, to jointly explore paths for realizing broad, genuine, and effective democracy and to make new contributions to the progress of human political civilization.

70多年来，我们党领导人民在发展人民民主上取得的伟大成就，丰富了世界民主理论和实践，贡献了中国智慧和中国方案。习近平总书记强调指出，我们要借鉴人类政治文明的有益成果，但绝不照搬西方政治制度模式。我们愿继续同世界上一切追求和平、发展、公平、正义、民主、自由的国家和人民，共同探讨实现广泛、真实、管用的民主的路径，为人类政治文明进步作出新贡献。

China’s People’s Congress system possesses particularity; it is a new type of democratic political system of a socialist nature.

我国人大制度具有特殊性，是社会主义性质的新型民主政治制度

All democracy, whether in terms of values or systems and institutions, has both a universal, social aspect and a particular, class aspect. Comrade Mao Zedong once said: The principles of our constitution are two, namely the democratic principle and the socialist principle. Using a fundamental law like the constitution to fix people’s democracy and the socialist principle in place provides the whole country with a clear track. The system of people’s congresses is a good system that conforms to China’s national conditions and reality, embodies the nature of the socialist state, and ensures that the people are the masters of the country.

一切民主，无论是价值观念还是制度体制，都既具有普遍性、社会性的一面，也具有特殊性和阶级性的一面。毛泽东同志说过：我国宪法的原则是两个，即民主原则和社会主义原则。用宪法这样一个根本大法的形式，把人民民主和社会主义原则固定下来，使全国人民有一条清楚的轨道。人民代表大会制度是符合我国国情和实际、体现社会主义国家性质、保证人民当家作主的好制度。

Our country is a socialist state, which insists on comprehensively safeguarding and realizing the people’s position as masters of the country through the socialist political, economic, and social systems. In terms of the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the basic nature of society, the essence of democracy, and the nature of the state system and form of government, it has a clear essential distinction from the democratic political systems of Western capitalist countries. Comrade Deng Xiaoping said: The democracy spoken of in capitalist society is the democracy of the bourgeoisie, in fact the democracy of monopoly capital, nothing more than multi-party elections, separation of the three powers, and a bicameral system. Our system is the system of people’s congresses, the people’s democratic system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; we cannot engage in that Western set of practices. Our country does not implement a presidential system, a parliamentary system, a constitutional monarchy, “separation of the three powers,” or a two-party system or multi-party system, and it also differs significantly from capitalist countries in terms of the form of government and the party system. This essential difference in the state system and the marked dissimilarity in the form of government determine the fundamental distinction between our country’s people’s congress system and the political systems of Western capitalist countries, and centrally embody the particularity of our country’s people’s congress system in terms of class essence, state nature, and form of state power organization.

我国是社会主义国家，坚持以社会主义政治经济社会制度全面保障和实现人民当家作主，在中国共产党领导、社会基本性质、民主本质和国体政体性质上，与西方资本主义国家的民主政治制度具有鲜明的本质区别。邓小平同志说：资本主义社会讲的民主是资产阶级的民主，实际上是垄断资本的民主，无非是多党竞选、三权鼎立、两院制。我们的制度是人民代表大会制度，中国共产党领导下的人民民主制度，不能搞西方那一套。我国不实行总统制、议会制、君主立宪制、“三权鼎立”以及两党制、多党制，在政体形式和政党制度等方面也与资本主义国家有重大区别。这种国体的本质区别和政体的显著不同，决定了我国人大制度与西方资本主义国家政治制度的根本区别，集中体现了我国人大制度在阶级本质、国家性质和政权组织形式上的特殊性。

Our country’s people’s congress system possesses distinctiveness; it is a socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics.

我国人大制度具有差异性，是具有中国特色的社会主义民主政治制度

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that there are no completely identical political systems in the world, nor is there a model of political system applicable to all countries. “Things are not uniform; that is the nature of things.” [1]1 A classical allusion from the ancient Chinese text *Mencius*, meaning that the diversity of things is a natural state of affairs. The national conditions of each country differ, and the political system of each country is unique. Compared with other socialist countries such as Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba, our country’s system of people’s congresses shares common features of socialist democratic politics in many respects, such as social nature, class essence, leadership by the Communist Party, state nature, organizational form of the state system, and the principal position of the people. At the same time, determined by the basic national conditions of the primary stage of socialism in our country, our country’s people’s congress system also possesses certain uniqueness and distinctiveness of socialist democratic politics with Chinese characteristics. For example, it upholds the organic unity of Party leadership, the people being masters of the country, and law-based governance; develops whole-process people’s democracy; implements the system of regional ethnic autonomy; implements the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the “one country, two systems” system, the system of the standing committee of the people’s congress, the system of grassroots legislative contact points, and the system of people’s mediation. We have put forward the major concept of whole-process people’s democracy, emphasizing that the system of people’s congresses is an important institutional carrier for realizing whole-process people’s democracy in our country. It is necessary to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China, to use the system and institutions to ensure that the people are masters of the country, to uphold comprehensive law-based governance, to uphold democratic centralism, to uphold the path of socialist political development with Chinese characteristics, to uphold the advancement of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, to give full play to the role of deputies to the people’s congresses, and to strengthen the building of people’s congresses at all levels in accordance with the requirements of the “four organs,” [2]2 A term from the work of the people’s congresses, referring to their roles as political organs, organs of state power, working organs, and representative organs. and so on. In many respects, our country’s people’s congress system manifests distinctiveness and different features compared with the democratic systems of other socialist countries.

习近平总书记指出，世界上不存在完全相同的政治制度，也不存在适用于一切国家的政治制度模式。“物之不齐，物之情也。”各国国情不同，每个国家的政治制度都是独特的。与越南、朝鲜、古巴等其他社会主义国家相比，我国人民代表大会制度在社会性质、阶级本质、共产党领导、国家本质、政体组织形式、人民主体地位等许多方面，具有社会主义国家民主政治的共同特征。同时，由我国社会主义初级阶段基本国情所决定，我国人大制度又具有中国特色社会主义民主政治的某些独特性、差异性。例如，坚持党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国有机统一，发展全过程人民民主，实行民族区域自治制度，实行中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度、“一国两制”制度、人大常委会制度、基层立法联系点制度、人民调解等制度。我们提出全过程人民民主的重大理念，强调人民代表大会制度是实现我国全过程人民民主的重要制度载体，必须坚持中国共产党领导，必须坚持用制度体系保障人民当家作主，必须坚持全面依法治国，必须坚持民主集中制，必须坚持走中国特色社会主义政治发展道路，必须坚持推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化，必须坚持充分发挥人大代表作用，必须坚持按照“四个机关”要求加强各级人大建设，等等。在许多方面，我国人大制度体现出与其他社会主义国家民主制度的差异性和不同特征。

Marxism holds that the particularity and distinctiveness of any thing contain the universality of things of the same kind, possessing commonality, universality, and generality. It is precisely this universality that embodies the universal features and common values of our country’s people’s congress system as “governance of a great power” and “governance by institutions” within the political civilization of all mankind, laying a common value and cultural foundation for our country’s people’s congresses to conduct exchanges on political civilization with countries around the world and jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. It is precisely this particularity that reveals the essential socialist democratic characteristics and political attributes of our country’s people’s congress system, demonstrating the notable advanced nature, people-centeredness, and superiority of the socialist democratic political system. It is precisely this distinctiveness that displays the Chinese characteristics, contemporary characteristics, and practical characteristics of our country’s people’s congress system. In short, the coexistence and dialectical unity of universality, particularity, and distinctiveness fully mark the historical orientation and contemporary features of our country’s people’s congress system, highlighting the Chinese characteristics, Chinese advantages, and world significance of the Chinese civilization of our country’s fundamental political system. (The author is a member and researcher of the Academic Division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

马克思主义认为，任何事物的特殊性、差异性都包含着同类事物的普遍性，具有共同性、普遍性和一般性特征。正是这种普遍性，体现了我国人大制度在全人类政治文明中“大国之治”“制度之治”的普遍特征和共同价值，为我国人大与世界各国开展政治文明交流、共同推动构建人类命运共同体奠定了共同的价值文化基础；正是这种特殊性，昭示了我国人大制度的社会主义民主本质特征和政治属性，展现出社会主义民主政治制度显著的先进性、人民性和优越性；正是这种差异性，显示了我国人大制度的中国特色、时代特色、实践特色。总之，普遍性、特殊性、差异性的共同存在、辩证统一，充分标识了我国人大制度的历史方位和时代特征，彰显了我国根本政治制度的中国特色、中国优势和中华文明的世界意义。（作者为中国社会科学院学部委员、研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧