Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.8, 2019

Democratic Centralism as a Principle of the Organs of State

(Abstract)

Wang Xu

To study democratic centralism as a principle of the organs of state from the perspective of constitutional jurisprudence, one must follow the laws of history contained in the text of the constitution and the practical environment in which they operate, pursuing the unity of historical, practical, theoretical and normative logic. A review of the legal texts and institutional practices of democratic centralism shows that they have the twofold theoretical connotations of “democracy as the basis for the implementation of centralization” and “democracy as a basis for constraints on centralization.” Underlying it is the view of a free and equal society in the Marxist doctrine of the state. This view has developed into the logic of practice of contemporary China, becoming the pursuit of both the legitimacy of national democracy and governance effectiveness. In order to achieve these two goals, the normative logic of democratic centralism is embodied in the constitution as the organic unity of establishment norms, activity norms, and neighboring norms. Their analysis and construction from the perspective of legal dogmatics will develop a complete system of constitutional norms.