Upholding and Developing Socialist Democratic Politics

3. Comprehensively deepen the practice of governing the country according to law

Comrade Xi Jinping proposed that we should adhere to the joint advancement of governing the country according to law, ruling according to law and administering according to law, and adhere to the integrated construction of a country ruled by law, a government ruled by law, and a society ruled by law. This important thesis points out the key elements and key links of comprehensively governing the country according to law, and clarifies the overall layout and key tasks of the rule of law construction in the new era. To deepen the practice of governing the country according to law in the new era and accelerate the construction of a socialist country ruled by law, we must take the comprehensive rule of law as a systematic project, take into account the overall consideration, grasp the key points, and plan as a whole, fully mobilize the initiative and enthusiasm of all parties, and form a good situation of coordinated development of the rule of law. Persist in administering the country according to law, ruling according to law, and administering according to law. Governing the country according to law, ruling according to law, and administering according to law are organically linked wholes, and the three are essentially the same, the goals are integrated, and the results are related, and they must cooperate with each other, promote together, and form a joint force. Governing the country according to law is the basic strategy for governing the country as determined by our Constitution. It is necessary to implement the concept of rule of law in all links of governance, throughout the entire process of reform and development, and through the construction of economic, political, cultural, social, ecological civilization and other aspects, to ensure that all organizations and individuals operate within the scope of the law.

Ruling according to law is the basic way for the party to govern the country. It is necessary to continuously improve the party’s leadership and ruling methods, enhance the awareness of ruling according to law, persist in carrying out work with the concept of rule of law, the system of rule of law, and the procedures of rule of law, and promote the institutionalization, standardization and procedure of ruling according to law. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “To govern the country according to law, we must first adhere to governing the country according to the constitution, and ruling according to law must first adhere to ruling according to the constitution.1 This important exposition fully reflects that the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core pays more attention to the important role of the Constitution as the fundamental law of the country. In this sense, our party must first take the lead in respecting and implementing the constitution, and unify leading the people to formulate and implement the constitution and laws with the party’s insistence on activities within the scope of the constitution and laws. Administration according to law is the main way for administrative organs to perform government functions and manage economic and social affairs. It is necessary to fully perform functions in accordance with the law, insist that legally prescribed duties must be performed and cannot be done without the authorization of the law, continuously improve the decision-making mechanism in accordance with the law, improve law enforcement procedures, strictly enforce the responsibility for law enforcement, and achieve strict standardization, fairness and civility in law enforcement. It is necessary to comprehensively promote openness in government affairs, strengthen the restraint and supervision of administrative powers, and establish a law-based administrative system with unified powers and responsibilities, authority and high efficiency.

Adhere to the integrated construction of a country ruled by law, a government ruled by law, and a society ruled by law. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The rule of law country, the rule of law government, and the rule of law society all have their own focus and complement each other, the rule of law country is the goal of rule of law construction, the rule of law government is the main body of building a rule of law country, and the rule of law society is the foundation for building a rule of law country.“2 In the construction of a country ruled by law, we must take the construction of a socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics as the general starting point, accelerate the formation of a complete legal normative system, an efficient rule of law implementation system, a strict rule of law supervision system, a strong rule of law guarantee system, and form a sound system of internal party laws and regulations. In the construction of a government ruled by law, governments at all levels must carry out work under the leadership of the Party and on the track of rule of law, and accelerate the construction of a government ruled by law with scientific functions, statutory powers and responsibilities, strict law enforcement, openness and justice, honesty and efficiency, and law-abiding and honest. In the construction of a society ruled by law, it is necessary to carry out in-depth publicity and education on the rule of law, carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law in the whole society, disseminate legal knowledge, build a socialist culture of rule of law, establish the concept of rule of law in which the constitution and the law are supreme and everyone is equal before the law, and form a good social atmosphere of respecting the law, believing in the law, abiding by the law, using the law, and protecting the law. It is necessary to persist in combining education on the rule of law with the practice of the rule of law, extensively carry out activities to govern according to law, and raise the level of legalization of social management.

It should also be pointed out that supervision according to law is a major measure to implement the practice of comprehensively governing the country according to law under the new situation, and an important part of promoting the reform of the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics. Promoting supervision according to law means to ensure the organic unity of governing the party according to law and governing the country according to law, and intra-party supervision and state supervision through legal means, to carry out anti-corruption work with rule of law thinking and methods, to integrate intra-party supervision with supervision by state organs, democratic supervision, judicial supervision, mass supervision, and public opinion supervision, and to continuously improve the supervision efficiency of the party and the state. Deepening the reform of the state supervision system in accordance with the Constitution and laws is a major political system reform related to the overall situation made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and a major decision and deployment to strengthen the self-supervision of the Party and the state.

Promote scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, fair administration of justice, and law-abiding by all people. This is the guiding principle for the construction of China’s rule of law in the new era, which clarifies the key requirements of each major link and constitutes the basic work pattern of comprehensively governing the country according to law in the new era. Scientific legislation is an important prerequisite for the construction of the rule of law. After the basic formation of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, the people’s expectations for legislation are no longer whether they are there or not, but whether it is good or not, whether it works, whether it can solve practical problems, and the requirements for improving the quality of legislation are getting higher and higher. In accordance with the arrangements of the 19th CPC National Congress, we should earnestly promote scientific, democratic, and law-based legislation, and do a good job in the work of legislation, reform, abolition, and interpretation. It is necessary to respect and embody the objective laws of legislation, implement the principles of fairness, openness and justice, ensure that the laws enacted abide by the law, are reasonable, and reasonable, and continuously improve the quality of legislation. It is necessary to persist in legislation for the people and rely on the people, continuously broaden the channels for citizens to participate in legislation in an orderly manner, so that legislation reflects the will of the people and is supported by the people. It is necessary to legislate in accordance with the legal authority and procedures to safeguard the unity and dignity of the socialist legal system. Strict law enforcement is a key link in the implementation of the law. Law enforcers must be faithful to the law. Administrative organs are important subjects in implementing laws and regulations, and should take the lead in strictly enforcing the law and safeguarding the public interest, the people’s rights and interests, and social order. It is necessary to comprehensively implement the system of power lists, responsibility lists, and negative lists to ensure that administrative organs operate within the scope of the law. Continuously improve law enforcement methods, put an end to undesirable phenomena such as rough law enforcement, selective law enforcement, and fishing law enforcement, and effectively solve prominent problems such as inaction and indiscriminate action in law enforcement. It is necessary to strictly enforce law enforcement qualifications, improve law enforcement procedures, establish and improve the benchmark system for administrative discretion, and ensure that the law is fair, effective, and impartial justice is the last line of defense to maintain social fairness and justice.

Judicial justice plays an important leading role in social justice, and judicial injustice has a fatal destructive effect on social justice. In order to promote judicial justice, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the judicial system. It should be said that the reform of the judicial system plays an important role in comprehensively deepening reform and comprehensively governing the country according to law, and is of great significance to promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. It is necessary to fully implement the judicial responsibility system and further advance the reform of the criminal procedure system centered on trial. Carry out comprehensive supporting reform pilots to improve the overall effectiveness of reform. It is necessary to deeply understand the key role of judicial accountability in the reform of the judicial system. By promoting the reform of the judicial accountability system, we will promote the resolution of difficult problems that restrict judicial fairness, and at the same time lead other reform measures to form synergies. Therefore, it is necessary to deepen the comprehensive and complementary reform of the judicial system, fully implement the judicial responsibility system, improve the judicial management system and the operation mechanism of judicial power, strengthen the supervision of judicial activities, accelerate the construction of a fair, efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system, continuously improve the quality, efficiency and credibility of the judiciary, and let the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.

Law-abiding by the whole people is the social basis for the law to function. It is necessary to intensify the popularization of law among the whole people, establish the concept of rule of law in which the Constitution and the law are supreme and everyone is equal before the law, guide the masses to do things according to law, find the law when encountered, rely on the law to solve problems, and consciously be faithful advocates, conscientious observers, and staunch defenders of the rule of law. Party organizations at all levels and all party members should take the lead in respecting the study of the law and abiding by the law; no organization or individual should have privileges that go beyond the Constitution and the law, and it is absolutely not allowed to use words to represent the law, use power to suppress the law, pursue profit to break the law, and bend the law for personal gain.