Upholding and Developing Socialist Democratic Politics

2. Take the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics

The positioning of the rule of law establishes the status of comprehensive rule of law in the new era, and the goal and path of rule of law construction establish the direction of efforts and the process of realizing comprehensive rule of law. In the early days after the founding of New China, while abolishing the old legal system, our party actively applied the successful experience of building the legal system in the base areas during the period of the new democratic revolution, stepped up the construction of socialist rule of law, and initially laid the foundation for socialist rule of law. Later, the construction of socialist rule of law went through a detour and paid a heavy price. In the new historical period of reform and opening up, our party has defined governing the country according to law as the basic strategy for the party to lead the people to govern the country, and ruling according to law as the basic way for the party to govern the country. The report of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1997 and the 1999 Amendment to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China clearly put forward the requirement of “governing the country according to law and building a socialist country ruled by law.” In January 2013, Comrade Xi Jinping put forward for the first time the goal of building a rule of law in China in his important instructions on doing a good job in political and legal work under the new situation. In October 2014, the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Promoting the Rule of Law adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out: “The overall goal of comprehensively promoting the rule of law is to build a socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics and build a socialist country under the rule of law. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China organically combined this general goal with the new journey of socialist construction, and proposed that by 2035, when socialist modernization is basically realized, “the rule of law country, the rule of law government, and the rule of law society will be basically completed.” The path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics is a concentrated embodiment of the achievements and experience in the construction of socialist rule of law, and the only correct path to building a socialist country under the rule of law.

To take the road of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, the most fundamental thing is to adhere to the party’s leadership. Adhering to the party’s leadership is the fundamental requirement of socialist rule of law, the fundamental guarantee for comprehensively promoting the overall goal of governing the country according to law, and the soul of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.

Comrade Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: “The relationship between the party and the law is a fundamental issue, and if it is handled well, the rule of law, the party and the country will prosper; if it is not handled well, the rule of law, the party and the country will decline.” 1 The leadership of the Party and the socialist rule of law are consistent, and the socialist rule of law must adhere to the leadership of the Party, and the Party’s leadership must rely on the socialist rule of law. “‘Party Congress or Law University’ is a false proposition”, “whether the major matter of comprehensively promoting the rule of law can be done well, the most important thing is whether the direction is correct and whether the political guarantee is strong and powerful.”2 Therefore, it is necessary to carry out the party’s leadership throughout the entire process and in all aspects of governing the country according to law, persist in the party’s leadership in legislation, ensure law enforcement, support the judiciary, and take the lead in abiding by the law, and unify the basic strategy of governing the country according to law with the basic method of governing the country according to law; integrate the party’s overall control of the overall situation and coordination between all parties and the people’s congresses, governments, CPPCC, judicial organs, and procuratorial organs in performing their functions and carrying out work in accordance with the charter; and unify the party’s leadership of the people in formulating and implementing the constitution and laws with the party’s insistence on activities within the scope of the constitution and laws. He is good at making the party’s propositions become the will of the state through legal procedures, good at making candidates recommended by party organizations become leading personnel of organs of state power through legal procedures, good at implementing the party’s leadership over the state and society through organs of state power, and good at using the principle of democratic centralism to safeguard the authority of the central authorities and the unity of the whole party and the whole country. To take the road of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to the people’s dominant position. Upholding the people’s dominant position is the basic attribute of socialist rule of law. “China’s socialist system ensures the dominant position of the people as masters of the country, and also guarantees the main position of the people in comprehensively promoting the rule of law. This is our institutional advantage, and it is also the fundamental difference between the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and the capitalist rule of law. “3 The people are the main body and source of strength for governing the country according to law, and we must adhere to the rule of law for the people, rely on the people, benefit the people, and protect the people, and ensure that the people, under the leadership of the Party and in accordance with the law, manage state affairs, economic and cultural undertakings, and social affairs through various channels and forms; we must persist in embodying the interests of the people, reflecting the people’s aspirations, safeguarding the people’s rights and interests, and improving the people’s well-being in the entire process of governing the country according to law;

We must persist in expanding the people’s orderly political participation and ensure that the people practice democratic elections, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision in accordance with the law. At the same time, it is also necessary to educate and guide the people to realize that the law is not only a powerful weapon to protect their own rights, but also a code of conduct that must be observed, so that the law can be mastered, observed and applied by the people. To take the road of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to the combination of governing the country according to law and governing the country with ethics. Fa’an world, morality and people’s hearts. “Law is written morality, and morality is the law of the heart. Law and morality have the role of regulating social behavior, regulating social relations, and maintaining social order, and both have their status and functions in national governance. “1 The effective implementation of the law cannot be separated from the strong support of morality. It is necessary to strengthen the supporting role of morality in the rule of law, attach importance to giving play to the role of morality in educating and nourishing the rule of law, improve the degree of civilization of the whole society, reflect the requirements of the rule of law in the moral system, highlight the connotation of the rule of law, pay attention to cultivating people’s legal beliefs, concepts of the rule of law, and awareness of rules, strive to connect, coordinate and promote the moral system with socialist legal norms, guide people to consciously perform legal obligations, social responsibilities, and family responsibilities, and create a humanistic environment in which the whole society stresses and abides by the rule of law. It is necessary to implement moral requirements in the construction of the rule of law, and use the rule of law to carry moral concepts, so that morality can be supported by a reliable system. Laws and regulations should establish a clear moral orientation, promote virtue and righteous deeds, and legislation, law enforcement, and justice should run through the core socialist values, embody the requirements of socialist morality, and make the socialist rule of law a good law and good governance. Persist in making the rule of law and the rule of ethics complementary, mutually reinforcing and mutually reinforcing in national governance. To take the road of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, we must persist in proceeding from China’s reality. There is no universal and unique path to rule of law in the world, and the choice of rule of law path chosen by a country must be based on its own history, reality and national conditions. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “To comprehensively promote the rule of law, we must go the right way. If the road is wrong and the opposite is lost, then there is no point in putting forward any more requirements and measures. "

The path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics is a concentrated embodiment of the achievements and experience in the construction of socialist rule of law, and is the only correct path to build a socialist country under the rule of law. Persisting in proceeding from China’s actual conditions, it is necessary to adapt to the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and neither ignore the national conditions and transcend the stage, nor follow the old ways and stick to established rules, but highlight the characteristics of China, practice and the times; It is necessary not only to draw rich nourishment from the excellent traditional rule of law culture, excavate and inherit the essence of Chinese legal culture, but also to sum up and apply the successful experience of the party in leading the people to implement the rule of law, and continuously enrich and develop the theory of socialist rule of law that conforms to China’s reality and embodies the law of social development around major theoretical and practical issues in the construction of socialist rule of law, so as to provide theoretical guidance and academic support for governing the country according to law. In the process of learning from other outstanding achievements of rule of law civilization in the world, we must persist in taking ourselves as the mainstay, using them for our own use, carefully identifying them, and rationally absorbing them, and we must never engage in “complete westernization” and “comprehensive transplantation.”