The role of the two sessions in China's democracy
- By Wang Wen
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 5, 2014
For an example, the U.S. Medicare bill has repeatedly run into a dead end, resulting in 15 percent of U.S. citizens uninsured.
I once talked in private with a U.S. Republican congressman on the same topic, during which I told him that "anyone who publically objects to providing medical insurance to the underprivileged will be morally criticized." The congressman laughed this off, saying that in the United States, at least he did not necessarily have to consider poor people's interests.
I was astonished by his remark, but personally felt how much U.S. politics is in the hands of powerful interest groups.
A struggle for a seat in the U.S. Congress is often over campaign funds. The seemingly fair "one man one vote" democracy is after all "the victory of the rich." In the long run, a traditional consensus can develop into "mutual veto" politics.
Over the past two decades, many scholars and opinion leaders, including those from China, are used to criticizing China's effort in its "de-Americanization" attempts; instead, they blindly worship Capitol Hill's practices.
But during the same two decades, almost all countries with Western style democracy have experienced nasty internal partisan struggles. Two years ago, Francis Fukuyama, the professor who advocated the "end of history" theory, had to admit that the U.S. political system and democracy were two separate concepts.
But regretfully, the world has not started a total reflection on "de-Americanization," though China has kept a balance between "modestly learning from the West" and "keeping necessarily vigilance."
The U.S. prominent futurist John Naisbitt said in his "China's Megatrends: The 8 Pillars Of A New Society" that China did not copy the Western form of democracy to end up in political struggles, but is applying its own one-party system in leading the nation to modernization, in which, the Two Sessions play a pivotal role.
The author is executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.
The article was translated by Chen Boyuan. Its original unabridged version was published in Chinese.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
