Initials and surname: PC Mosielo

Student number: 222000914

Course: Politics 1A
Lecturer: Prof S. Zondi
Date of submission: 28 March 2022
Due date: 29 March 2022
Topic: Party systems
Table of contents

Contents: P:

1. Introduction 1
1.1 Party systems and political parties defined 1
2. CCP’s background 1
3. China’s political system and how it runs 1
3.1 The CCP 1
3.2 The State 2
3.3 Stability through control 2
4. Conclusion 2
5. Bibliography 3
Political parties and party systems are considered an essential part of the democratic economy we live
in. In most cases, the citizens of a particular country choose whom they want their leaders to be by
voting for political parties they wish, in this way, opposing parties are legally accepted and are part of
the political system in said country. However, there are political parties who are in power in some
countries that do not respect the political views of opposing parties and in some cases, legally ban the
opposing parties. These parties are not democratic but are rather tyrannical and dictatorial as they do
not give the citizens the right of freedom to choose their desired party or leader but instead force them
to accept their leadership. China is one of those countries that use this system to run their economy
and this paper’s intention is to thoroughly discuss the party system and political party that is found in
China and how it is oppressive and undemocratic. The paper begins with short definitions of a
political party and a party system, it will then give a brief background of China’s current political
party (the Chinese communist party), and as the paper progresses, it will discuss China’s political
system that has been in practice for decades and explain how it runs. The paper will then review the
one-party system in China and how it dictates the citizens’ lives. Along the way, the paper will
discuss the CCP’s nondemocratic leadership. The conclusion of the paper will then end with an
argument that proves China is not a democratic country.
“A political party is a group of people that is organized for the purpose of winning government power,
by electoral or other means” (Heywood 2019: 245), Heywood described political parties as
organizations of individuals who have the same ideology launched with the intention of obtaining
government strength using elections and other methods for them to execute their plan. Political parties
exercise their ideas through party systems. A party system is a set-up of connections between and
among political parties assembled by their number, size and their manner of thinking characteristics.
This relationship of parties should be defined by order and solidity. There are diverse types of party
systems, each of them practiced in different countries. Since this paper’s focus is on China, the only
party system that will be defined is the one-party system as that is China’s current party system. A
one-party system is a monopolistic system that has a permanent government that can’t be removed
even with revolutions and riots. In this party system, there is only one political party that is legally in
power, while other political parties are excluded.
“In the midst of this malaise, as one specific response to it, was born the Chinese communist party, in
mid-year 1921” (Uhalley 1988: 3), The CCP was founded in 1921 as a response to the great
disturbance of the 1920s in China by revolutionaries such as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu.
The CCP has since been ruling China from 1949 and its still the only political party in power, this
then means China is a one-party system country. The whole economy is organized like a pyramid in
the sense that the individuals in power are sat on the top while the regular citizens who are large in
numbers are at the bottom of the pyramid. The citizens are however not completely excluded as they
are given the ‘freedom’ to choose who delegates of the national congress are. The national congress’
delegates are changed every after five years, and within the national congress, the members choose
who will be part of the central committee. The central committee carries out the decisions of the
national congress and represent the country. The delegates of the central committee then choose who
will be part of the Politburo which is the policy making committee that institutes systems of titles and
ranks for military and other specific titles and ranks. The members of the Politburo are selected to
serve in the standing committee which varies in size depending on who is currently in charge. Under
the current leader there are seven members of the Politburo. At the very top sits the general secretary,
the leader of the CCP and China as a whole, Xi Jinping has been the leader since 2012. The line-up of
the Politburo and the central committee are decided by the government through private negotiations
behind closed doors, this means the citizens have no say in who they want their president to be.
The Chinese communist party controls all aspects of the government and holds a majority in the
National people’s congress (NPC) which is China’s legislature, the rest of the seats are occupied by
the non-party members, including the other eight political parties. These eight parties might be part of
the NPC, but they don’t serve as political oppositions, they might have different ideas from those of
the CCP but their whole existence is based on accepting the CCP’s leadership meaning, there is no
organized, legal opposition movement in China.
The delegates of the Politburo are the state leaders and ministers in charge of the government bodies
and officially report to the NPC, the NPC oversees reviewing of these organizations, but because both
the NPC and the Politburo are under the CCP, the organizations are automatically accepted and not
actually supervised. The state council, which supervises all government departments and enacting
national policy are led by the Chinese premier, the central military council which is the highest
defence organization is led by the party’s general secretary meaning the CCP has direct power over
the world’s biggest miliary.
Loyalty and stability are important for the CCP because without them, development is impossible, so
the government tries to control public opinion. They implement this by using the media to promote
the CCP’s policies, from following the covid-19 regulations to the number of children they are
allowed to have. Social platforms like Twitter are blocked to remove politically sensitive or disruptive
content. Since loyalty is valued, people within and outside the party who are considered disloyal have
been silenced, placed under house arrest, sent to jail or sometimes disappeared for years before it was
know what happened to them, this then begs the question; “Isn’t that a violation of human rights?”.
Even though the CCP claims their leadership is democratic and doesn’t violate the rights of the
citizens, this paper proved that to be false. The CCP controlling every aspect of the government and
not allowing any political opposition but forcing the other parties to accept their leadership while also
not giving the citizens the right to vote for who they want their leader to be and giving them a certain
number of children, they're allowed to have proven that China under the CCP’s leadership is not
democratic country but a modernized tyrannical one.
References

Heywood, A. 2019. Politics. Red Globe Press, London.

Giovanni, S. 2005. Parties and party systems: A framework for analysis. ECPR Press, University of
Essex.
Lian, Y. 2021. “The Chinese communist party is 100. It's not going anywhere”.
Friedman, E. 2009. “China: A threat to or threatened by democracy”. Penn Press, University of
Pennsylvania.
Yang, G. 2009. The power of the internet in China: Citizen activism. Colombia University Press, New
York.
Uhalley, S.J, 1988. A history of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford
University.