The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China systematically elaborated on Chinese-style modernization for the first time, and put forward the essential requirements of nine aspects of Chinese-style modernization: adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, adhere to socialism with Chinese characteristics, achieve high-quality development, develop people's democracy in the whole process, enrich the spiritual world of the people, realize common prosperity for all people, promote the harmonious coexistence between mankind and nature, promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and create a new form of human civilization.
On the afternoon of October 23, after the Standing Committee of the 20th Central Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China met with Chinese and foreign journalists, Beijing News Beijing Think Tank held an online seminar on the theme of "Arriving on a New Journey of Chinese-style Modernization".
Vice President of the Chinese Political Society , Dean and Professor Yan Jirong, School of Government Management, Peking University, emphasized at the meeting that Chinese-style modernization is an upgraded version of modernization theory. In the future, one of the key points of Chinese-style modernization is the rule of law and institutionalization of the country.
Yan Jirong, Vice President of the Chinese Political Society, Dean and Professor of the School of Government Management, Peking University. Photo/Beijing News map
China represents the modernization of late-developed countries
In recent years, there have been many comparative studies and discussions about China's modernization and the modernization of Western developed countries. In this regard, Yan Jirong believes that Western modernization belongs to early modernization, and industrialization and urbanization are its main characteristics. Materialism, competition, polarization, land enclosure movement, workers' movement, colonialism, imperialism and even the confrontation between the Eastern and Western camps can all be regarded as the historical heritage of modernization of Western countries .
Because in the process of Western modernization, most subjective behaviors are spontaneous order, and the government often responds negatively to problems that arise. This development leaves many sequelae. In addition to the reflection and criticism of postmodernism theory, today's global governance is essentially considering how to effectively deal with the sequelae of Western modernization.
, and China represents the modernization of latecomer countries. The international order faced by latecomers has a developed central and underdeveloped peripheral structure, which is essentially constructed around the central country and the satellite country . It is precisely because of the different historical backgrounds that Yan Jirong said that China's modernization is essentially different from that of the West. China's modernization can take a different path, namely the combination of an effective market and an effective government. In addition, China has the theoretical awareness of promoting Chinese-style modernization, and this awareness will prompt China to contribute to a new modernization model.
Chinese-style modernization is an upgraded version of modernization theory
Yan Jirong believes that from the perspective of theoretical development research, Chinese-style modernization is an innovation in modernization theory.
In the field of theoretical research, modernization refers to the stage of social development with industrial manufacturing as the main mode of production, which is specifically manifested as a series of universal characteristics in the modernization process of various countries, mainly including the following eight aspects.
The first is industrialization, that is, the development from agricultural civilization, animal husbandry society to manufacturing; the second is urbanization, the core is the transformation from the main body from farmers to citizens; the third is marketization, which refers to the way of resource allocation and exchange based on free market competition and contractual spirit; the fourth is national politics, and the nation-state has completed the transformation from family to public world; the fifth is party politics, and government organizations and policy implementation are mainly achieved through party politics; the sixth is democratic politics, which changes from court politics to democratic politics, and citizens' participation is becoming increasingly important; the seventh is welfare politics, that is, the state provides a welfare system to solve the problem of poverty; the eighth is internationalization, and modernization promotes the globalization process of the international system.
From the perspective of theoretical development history, modernization theory based on Western modernization experience emerged in the 1950s and was gradually promoted globally. After the 1980s, postmodern theory emerged based on reflection and review of Western modernization experience. Postmodern theory believed that various problems brought about by Western industrialization, commercialism, excessive competition, materialism, and urbanization all need to be reviewed and reflected.
Chinese-style modernization is an innovation based on modernization theory and postmodern theory. It is a theoretical summary based on China's modernization experience. Yan Jirong called it "an upgraded version of modernization theory". This new theory requires more explanation from Chinese scholars.
Yan Jirong believes that it is necessary to understand and elaborate on the innovation of Chinese modernization from five aspects: population size, common prosperity, coordination of material and spiritual civilization, harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and peaceful development.
First of all, as a big country with a population of 1.4 billion, how to solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development in our country requires us to give positive answers; second, the modernization of traditional society is often accompanied by social differentiation, and China proposes to avoid such differentiation through common prosperity; third, material civilization should be the pursuit of modernization, but without spiritual civilization, it will fall into the trap of materialism. The construction of spiritual civilization is the combination of my country's hard power and soft power; fourth, the early modernization was too pursuing the excessive pursuit of economic development and the growth of material wealth, and often at the expense of natural resources. In the past decade, my country has made great adjustments in this regard and achieved obvious results; fifth, early modernization is often related to colonialism and overseas plunder, and China adheres to the concept of peaceful development and proposes to avoid the global governance dilemma caused by competition among countries in the modernization process by building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Full-process democracy: Writing China's "New Theory of Democracy"
Yan Jirong believes that from the perspective of political science research, the Twenty National Congress reports regard the whole process people's democracy as one of the essential requirements of Chinese-style modernization, which has profound meaning. Democracy is the political result in the process of national modernization development and a common global value. Holding high the banner of democracy is an important part of my country's modernization process. However, the value of democracy is not achieved overnight, it requires continuous pursuit, promotion and upgrading. In this regard, Yan Jirong said that people's democracy in the whole process is a high-level version of democratic civilization.
From the historical process of democratic practice, Yan Jirong believes that the major leap in democratic theory comes from people's reflection on its practice. The first leap in democracy theory was the transformation from direct democracy to representative democracy. Since then, people have further realized that there are problems in the practice of narrowly understanding democracy as free elections, and a second leap in democracy theory came into being.
The new leap in modernization theory has formed two achievements. First, it is the carefully thought consultative democracy advocated by Western political theory, and the second is the whole-process democracy. The whole process of democracy advocates expanding the democratic front from representative election to the entire process of decision-making, management, and supervision, and expanding the efforts of the whole people to every link from election to decision-making, management, and supervision. This is an important result of our country's further reflection on democracy.
Therefore, Yan Jirong said that Chinese-style modernization will make important contributions to the development of democratic practice. Chinese scholars should incorporate China's practice into democratic thinking and write a Chinese version of "New Theory of Democracy".
In Yan Jirong's view, democracy under Chinese modernization has its innovation mainly reflected in four aspects.
First of all, analyze democracy from the perspectives of the spirit of democracy and the way of realizing democracy, and understand democracy as a process of continuous efforts, rather than explaining the process of democratization with solidified systems and models.
Second, focus on the actual effects and utility of democracy. Chinese-style democracy not only pursues rationality, but also seeks usefulness.
Third, emphasizing the people-oriented nature of democracy. China's democratic theory and practice are rooted in Chinese political practice. It is a decision-making method for the institutional arrangements and policies of people's democracy after generations of exploration.
Fourth, pursue people's democracy throughout the process, insist that state power belongs to the people, ensure that the people conduct democratic elections in accordance with the law, and ensure that the people conduct democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision in accordance with the law, and effectively prevent the phenomenon of promises in the election and no one cares about it after the election.
In terms of the next layout of Chinese-style modernization, Yan Jirong said that the important achievement of modernization is the continuous advancement of the rule of law. The key to realizing Chinese-style modernization in the future is to carry out institutional construction. We must fix the modernization achievements formed by our country's institutional advantages and correct decisions through institutionalization and rule of law, so that modern development can mature. Therefore, institutionalization and legal construction should be a focus of work in promoting Chinese-style modernization in the future.
Beijing News reporter Kong Xue
edited Cha Zhiyuan
proofreading Yang Xu
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