It’s clear while looking at what the CPC is doing that it is working towards the benefit of the working class, but I still have not fully grasped the structural and theoretical reason for why the party represents the working class.
Like, I can see that capitalists don’t have much foothold in the party, and corruption is low, but why? Is there something that stops capitalists from climbing the ranks?
Many western ‘socialists’ also like to claim that party elites have become the new ruling class. But really, what is there to stop the party elites from working for their own benefit?
Basically: How is the top level of the party still held accountable to the wants of the working class?
Vigorous public opinion polling, strong education in Marxist-Leninism and SWCC to be able to join the CPC, years of dedication to the people, tiered internal election structures where leaders are chosen by metrics, not popularity, absence of multi-party money-fueled popularity contest elections, and dominance of a single ML party, leadership that provides ways for workers congresses and local organizations able to push suggestions and complaints ( IE an actually receptive democracy ).
- Is China a democracy?
- Workplace democracy in action in the CPC.
- What kind of democracy does China have, and how is it different from the west?
- In contrast to low US political approval ratings, 96% of Chinese are satisfied with the national government (Edelmans 2016). World Values Surveys says that 83% think the country is run for their benefit rather than for the benefit of special groups. A Harvard research center study of long-term public opinion survey finds that > 95% of Chinese citizens approved their government. How is this possible in a one-party state? (TED talk by Eric X Li)
- How does China’s political system work?
- How are Chinese leaders elected / chosen? How meristocratic is the system? How do elections differ from those in western bourgeois democracies?
- Who runs China? Makeup of the national people’s congress.
- US policy-makers are misjudging popular support China’s Government.
I will do a bit of a theoretical analysis of my own here, so bear with me.
Nothing really stops them, except maybe another June 4th (I heard it was largely against liberal reforms, but take my word with a grain of salt). The thing is answering a questions of how and why.
You see, the power structure in China is reversed to what it is in the West, with regards to the corporate interests. You see, in the West, the corporate interests control the media, the media control the public opinion and the public opinion votes in the government. That means that the corporate media is on the top, regardless of the starting function of the State (whether it is to benefit the masses or to benefit the few) its function becomes whatever function the corporate interest wants. And we know that in capitalism the corporate interest give zero fucks about the masses, their whole existence is about profit. Theoretically, the corporate interests can lobby the government to whatever benefits the masses, but it is a fact that the firms that don’t give a shit about the masses are the ones which profit the most and in capitalist system that is what makes them be on the top. It could also be that the State manages the media and ensures that the corporate interests cannot influence the media, but then it is neither electoral democracy nor capitalism in their true sense.
Now, in China, the situation is reversed. The media influence the people, but the people only vote in their local government, not directly the Politburo or the Central Committee. Therefore the media have no influence on the State. Which means that State actually has the upper hand, because the State controls the military and police and so on, and with no way for media to influence the State, the State influences the media if it wants to, and it wants to. That means that the only way for the corporate interest to control the State is directly trough bribes. Also you have to, as corporate interest, control the masses, otherwise they will overthrow your corrupt officials one way or the other, so it is a much more complicated effort.
Now, what makes that impossible? Well, nothing really. But take a look at this. The Chinese government came into power through revolution. Which means that the central government was there for the masses, that is what the communist revolution means. Now, if the counterrevolution is suppressed (and I think it was during the Cultural Revolution, I think Mao was right that it was one of his most important works) that means now that the central government is there for the people, which means that the function of the State is to benefit the masses. Such a State is very hard to directly bribe, and then that State can curb corruption from within, ensuring that only the people who really are there to benefit the masses enter the inner circles (see Maud’Dibber 's comment for more on how they do that).
In my opinion, neither Soviet Union nor Yugoslavia curbed the counterrevolution and that is why they succumbed to what they succumbed to and disappeared.
