How Lenin Talked about Party Democracy (Inner-Party Democracy)
The party democracy that Lenin talked about is identical to the state democracy in terms of both concept and form. It is the result of applying the same political system to two different areas.
The word "democracy" in Lenin's original text is " демократия ", which is an internationally used word. In the second Chinese edition of "The Complete Works of Lenin ", it is generally translated as "democracy" in consideration of China's customary usage. It is only translated as "democracy" when Lenin "compared" it with other national forms, such as monarchy and democracy. "Democracy" and "democracy" are the same word in Lenin's original text. There is no difference in meaning despite the different translations.
Lenin often said that democracy is a form of state, which is what we usually call a political system. What kind of political system is this? The word democracy comes from ancient Greece. Lenin explained its original meaning as follows: democracy means "power in the hands of the people." [1] If the original text of "power in the hands of the people" is translated literally, it can also be translated as "power belongs to the people." According to Lenin's explanation, democracy is a political system in which "power belongs to the people" and "power is in the hands of the people."
There are two forms of democracy, direct democracy and indirect democracy. In direct democracy, the people not only hold power, but also exercise it directly. In indirect democracy, the people hold power, but do not exercise it directly, but indirectly, through representative bodies.
Lenin said that the democratic system first appeared in the slave-owning society. He was referring to the ancient Greek city-state of Athens. There, all major issues were decided by all citizens in a meeting. The Citizens' Assembly was the organ for the people to exercise power, and the decisions it passed were laws. This kind of democracy in which the people directly exercise power and directly decide major issues is direct democracy. It should be pointed out that the word "people" has different meanings in different eras and different countries. In the slave society, slaves were tools and were not considered human beings at all. The citizens of Athens accounted for only one-tenth of the total population.
Direct democracy is a democracy that is implemented when the population is small. However, when the population is large and the territory is vast, it is impossible for the people to exercise power directly and hold general meetings frequently to decide major issues. Therefore, a democracy was born in which the people elect representatives and the representative bodies exercise power and decide major issues. This is the indirect democracy of later generations, the representative democracy. The earliest representative democracy in history was the parliamentary system, which was the product of the bourgeois revolution after the 17th century and was a bourgeois democracy. In 1848 , Marx and Engels said in the Communist Manifesto:
"The first step of the workers' revolution is to transform the proletariat into the ruling class and to win democracy." [2]
The first of these two sentences in the Manifesto talks about the state system, saying that the state system is the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the second sentence talks about the political system, saying that the political system is democracy, which was the parliamentary system at the time. Marx never indulged in fantasy, he always based his argument on historical experience. The representative democracy he could see at the time was the parliamentary system. Obviously, he wanted to use the parliamentary system to serve the proletariat. In 1871, the Paris Commune emerged. It was a representative body composed of workers' representatives elected by universal suffrage in all districts of Paris. This was a new, proletarian representative democracy. In his book The Civil War in France, Marx affirmed the experience of the Commune and denied the parliamentary system. However, in 1891 , when criticizing the Erfurt Program, Engels said:
"Our party and the working class can only rule under the political form of a democratic republic. A democratic republic is even a special form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the French Revolution has proved." [3]
The democratic republic that Engels was talking about here was a parliamentary republic. He reiterated the meaning of two sentences in the Manifesto, saying that the proletarian state system could even adopt a parliamentary republic-like political system. In the early 20th century, the Soviets of Workers' Representatives appeared in Russia. The word "Soviet" is a transliteration, and its literal translation is "meeting". The Soviets of Workers' Representatives are workers' representative meetings. This is a representative democracy for workers. Lenin said it was a Paris Commune-type democracy that was much higher than parliamentary democracy. Today, representative democracy has made great progress. In addition to the above forms of democracy, there are also the State Duma system in Russia, the People's Congress system in China, the Khural system in Mongolia, etc. These are representative democracies of different forms that emerged in different periods under different national conditions.
The situation is the same with party democracy as with state democracy.
On May 31, 1906 , Lenin explained what party democracy is in his article “Let the Workers Decide”. He pointed out: “At present, the entire party organization is established on the principle of democracy. That is, all party members elect the leaders, the members of the committee, etc., all party members discuss and decide the questions of the proletarian political movement, and all party members determine the strategy and policy of the party organization.” [4]
Lenin said here that the party's democracy is the same as the national democracy in concept. The national democracy takes the people as the main body, and the concept of democracy is: power belongs to the people, and the people hold power (the people decide all major issues). The party's democracy takes all party members as the main body, and the concept of democracy is: (power belongs to all party members, and all party members hold power) all party members decide all major issues of the party.
On January 13-14,1907, Lenin once again explained what party democracy is in his article “Social - Democratic Party and Duma Elections”. He pointed out: “The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party is democratically organised. That is to say, all party affairs are handled by all party members directly or through representatives on an equal basis and without exception; moreover, all responsible party members, all leading members, all party organs are elected, must report their work to the party members and can be removed.” He also explained, using the example of the party organization in St. Petersburg:
“The affairs of the St. Petersburg organization are handled by the elected St. Petersburg Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Since it is impossible to bring all party members (about 6,000 people) together, the highest organ of the St. Petersburg organization is the conference of representatives of the organization... The decisions made by the delegates are the highest and final decisions on the issues concerning the entire local organization.” [5]
Lenin said here that the party democracy, like the national democracy, also has two forms: direct democracy and representative democracy. The two forms of national democracy are: when the population is small, the people convene a congress to decide on major issues in the region, which is direct democracy; when the population is large, the people elect representatives to decide on major issues in the region through the congress and its committee, which is representative democracy. The two forms of party democracy are: when the number of party members is small, all party members convene a congress to decide on major issues of the organization, which is direct democracy; when the number of party members is large and they cannot gather together for a meeting, the party members elect representatives to decide on major issues of the organization through the congress and its committee, which is representative democracy. Lenin called it "democratic representation" at the time, saying that "it is contrary to the principle of consultative conferences and the principle of submitting conference decisions to the vote of the organizations, that is, holding a 'referendum'" [6] . In other words, it is different from both the principle of consultation and the principle of referendum. He also said that "democratic representation" is a common principle of international social democracy. [7] Lenin regarded the electoral system as the starting method and necessary condition for representative democracy. He called representative democracy based on elections the “ideal democratic system.” [8]
The party's democracy and the state's democracy are the same in concept and form. The state's democracy is a democratic system implemented by a country, while the party's democracy is a "democratic system" implemented by a party. The two democratic systems are the result of applying the same political system to two different fields.
Our country's democratic system takes the form of representative democracy, and our Constitution states it as follows: "All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at various levels." The party democracy that Lenin talked about, under the form of "democratic representation," can also be expressed as follows: All party power belongs to all party members, and the organs through which all party members exercise party power are the National Party Congress and local congresses at various levels, as well as the committees produced by the congresses at each level.
Notes :
[1]. The Complete Works of Lenin, 2nd Chinese edition , Vol. 37 , p. 67.
[ 2] . The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, 1st Chinese edition , Vol. 22 , p.
[3] . Ibid., Vol. 4 , p.
[4] . The Complete Works of Lenin, 2nd Chinese edition , Vol. 13 , pp. 191-192 .
[5] . Ibid., Vol. 14 , p .
249. [6] . Ibid., Vol . 11 , pp . 154-155 .
[7] . Ibid., Vol. 10 , p. 300. [ 8] . Ibid., Vol. 16 , p . 95 .
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