Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, March 03, 2014

Another people's congress??

Every year about this time I have to give myself a dope slap to shake the cobwebs in my memory. It seems there are so many congresses in China: the National Peoples Congress, the National Party Congress, and today (again) the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. And then there are the provincial and local people's and party congresses.

For a regime that's not democratically representative, there are certainly lots of organizations that have the appearance of representation. Then I remind myself about democratic centralism. That's the idea that the leadership (i.e. the Communist Party leaders) are supposed to gather preferences and suggestions from the populace, formulate policies, and lead the people toward those policy goals. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is meant to be one of those vehicles for gathering preferences and suggestions. It's also a way to lead the people toward those policy goals determined by the Party politburo's central committee.

This excerpt from Wikipedia about The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference seems pretty accurate to me. Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), also known as the People's PCC or just "The PCC", is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China. The organization consists of delegates from a range of political parties and organizations, as well as independent members. The proportion of representation of the various parties is determined by established convention, negotiated between the parties.

In practice, the largest and dominant party in the Conference is the Communist Party of China which has about one third of the seats. Other members are drawn from the United Front parties allied with the CPC, and from independent members who are not members of any party. The Conference is intended to appear to be more representative and be composed of a broader range of people than is typical of government office in the People's Republic of China.

The National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference typically holds a yearly meeting at the same time as plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC). Both CPPCC National Committee and NPC plenary sessions are often called the "National Lianghui" (The National Two Meetings), making important national level political decisions.

The 2014 session of the CPPCC is scheduled to open on March 3, 2014, in conjunction with the annual session of China's National People's Congress (NPC).

China Focus: China's top political advisory body convenes, pledging to help deepen reforms

China's top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng Monday pledged to further efforts to contribute to the deepening of the country's reforms in a comprehensive manner.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the pledge in a report delivered at the opening meeting of the Second Session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee that opened in Beijing Monday.

"We will perform all our functions in a spirit of reform and innovation throughout the course of our work, ... and strive to play a bigger role in the development of the cause of the Party and country," Yu said in his report.

In regards to future work of the CPPCC, Yu said the political advisory body must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), while adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics…

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