And by the way China is not a one party state. Yes it is a dictatorship of the proletariat which means that the communist party, as by far the biggest political force with almost a hundred million members, will always be the primary driver of the state, but there are other political parties independent of the CPC which are also represented in the National People’s Congress. These are kind of like special interest groups and although they are a minority they play a fairly active role in the political discussions that take place. They get to represent their interest groups and give input, and participate at least to some extent in shaping policies.
Is the existence of multiple parties necessary for a system to be democratic? No, not at all. The PRC would be no less democratic even if no other parties but the CPC were allowed. Then all of the democracy would just happen in one single party, making it effectively a no-party system, kind of like Cuba. But it is an interesting factoid that most westerners are not familiar with.
Democracy is not simply voting for one party or the other, it is a process of self-determination that can exist in many different frameworks, not just in the framework of liberal multi-party parliamentary systems. More than any other civilization in the world, it is the so-called West that has never really understood the concept of democracy as it has always been too obsessed with procedure and formal structures rather than with the application and representation of the will of the people, their real interests and their material needs. Most other civilizations already had much more advanced democratic traditions in one way or another before European colonialism came.
And by the way China is not a one party state. Yes it is a dictatorship of the proletariat which means that the communist party, as by far the biggest political force with almost a hundred million members, will always be the primary driver of the state, but there are other political parties independent of the CPC which are also represented in the National People’s Congress. These are kind of like special interest groups and although they are a minority they play a fairly active role in the political discussions that take place. They get to represent their interest groups and give input, and participate at least to some extent in shaping policies.
Is the existence of multiple parties necessary for a system to be democratic? No, not at all. The PRC would be no less democratic even if no other parties but the CPC were allowed. Then all of the democracy would just happen in one single party, making it effectively a no-party system, kind of like Cuba. But it is an interesting factoid that most westerners are not familiar with.
Democracy is not simply voting for one party or the other, it is a process of self-determination that can exist in many different frameworks, not just in the framework of liberal multi-party parliamentary systems. More than any other civilization in the world, it is the so-called West that has never really understood the concept of democracy as it has always been too obsessed with procedure and formal structures rather than with the application and representation of the will of the people, their real interests and their material needs. Most other civilizations already had much more advanced democratic traditions in one way or another before European colonialism came.