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The article contains a striking statement to the effect that the government’s standard of rights is shifting to match society’s standard in a continuous process of returning rights to the people, and that this should be a target of political reforms.
As long as the discussion this time doesn’t remain empty talk and impracticable, as with previous discussions, I surely agree with the idea of political reforms implemented by returning rights to the people. However, the concept behind this issue still surprises me.
Theoretically speaking, it is the people who possess rights irrespective of the government, whether in the context of Western democracy or of so-called “democracy with Chinese characteristics.” Then why have the rights of China’s citizens been held in the hands of the authorities for decades, so that the government today is talking about “returning” them?
There are two forces held by people within any society – rights and powers. In modern societies, there are two basic social structures, which can be identified as either democratic or centralized. This was especially true during the Cold War period.
In a democratic society, powers originate from rights; more specifically, from the political rights of the individual citizens of that society. Hence, it’s very clear that powers belong to the government while rights belong to the individuals within a given society. When a government is granted powers, it cannot also lay claim to rights. On the other hand, when rights are given to individual members of a society, each individual holds no powers unless he or she is elected or assigned to a public post.
Nevertheless, in a centralized society, both powers and rights have been “centralized” in the hands of the rulers. In the Soviet Union, for example, the farmers didn’t have the right to plant crops on their own land – all lands became part of collective farms. In that context, an issue like “returning rights to the people” could make sense.
But how can a local government in China tackle such an issue?
Speaking of personal rights, one kind is viewed as the “natural rights” of a person, such as one’s right to own property or right to faith, while the other category is called “political rights,” including a person’s right to vote and to express critical ideas. In the case of China’s Hunan province, the government is aiming for political reforms with the objective of returning political rights back to its citizens.
“(We have to) begin this with expanding the orderly political participation of the citizens from all levels and fields, enhancing the masses’ active involvement in politics and strengthening the openness of information about the government administration, the state-run factories and the schools, in order to protect the people’s rights to information, participation, expression and supervision.” This is the menu of political reforms mentioned in the article.
However, if one examines this menu of political rights carefully, one will find that the main course is missing – the right to hold elections. Elections are a key element of democracy; without them, there is no real democracy.
This right is highly significant, as it is provides legitimacy to the political power in any democratic society. The essence of a democracy is the autonomy of its citizens. It is “government by the people,” which means that citizens elect their own representatives and grant them powers to govern the society. Democracy cannot be achieved without this element.
Some scholars have described this concept of “returning rights” as a process of reorientation from the government’s standard of rights to what is called “society’s standard.” But this is not precise. After all, society is not a substantial entity but a structure of relationships, composed of numerous individual citizens. The basic unit when it comes to granting rights is the individual. Therefore, rights must be oriented to the individual; only an individual can fully “own” rights.
For instance, the Chinese authorities have been talking for decades about “ownership by the people,” which would appear to be “society’s standard.” But can one individual citizen specify exactly what he or she owns? If I cannot control my share, it cannot really be called mine. But each voter’s ballot embodies the real political right one citizen should be able to claim.
In fact, Hunan’s discussion on returning rights to the people dates back to the 1920s, when China was facing a movement known as “autonomy for united provinces.” This movement was first initiated by warlords in Hunan province, and resulted in the election of a provincial governor in 1922 after a vote was taken in all the province’s 74 counties.
Mao Zedong in his early years was also an activist in Hunan during that period. Today, why not start with elections in the villages and counties of this province as a trial?
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(Shao Jian is an associate professor in the Chinese Department of Nanjing Xiaozhuang University. This article is edited and translated from the Chinese by UPI Asia.com; the original can be found at http://www.chinaelections.org/NewsInfo.asp?NewsID=135465 ©Copyright Shao Jian.)
