Criteria for a Democratic and Effective National Political System: A Comparison of Democratic Political Systems in China and the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT Democracy should not be only a matter of form, but should be genuine and workable. This article makes a comprehensive comparison between the political systems in China and the United States, using Chinese President Xi Jinping’s eight “whether to do” and four “depending on” criteria in order to judge whether each country’s political system is democratic and effective. The people’s democracy in China has always been based on the principle that the people must be at its center. Bringing to realization the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people is always regarded as the starting point and guarantee of democratic construction, and the people’s democratic right to be masters of the country is ensured through the establishing of a set of institutional systems. This approach determines fully that the socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics is real, effective and workable. The United States is a country based on “elite democracy” and the nature and mode of democracy there often turns into an alliance of, or competition between, parties and capitalist interests. This is a democracy in which politicians and capitalist oligarchs manipulate public opinion for their special purposes, a situation that amounts in essence to a takeover of sovereignty by oligarchic monopolies.