Chinese Enrichment and Development of Marxist Concept of Democracy in the New Era

Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China,Chinese communists,re-presented by President Xi Jinping,have innovated Marxist Concept of Democracy base on Chinese history,culture and conditions. On the basis of inheriting Marxist thought of the inner prescriptions of "people's democracy",they fur-ther expanded the connotation and extension of "rule by the people",developed the contents of the electoral democ-racy and consultative democracy in China.,enriched the concrete requirements of the democratic realization condi-tions from the aspects of economic foundation,intellectual support and the guarantee of the rule of law,and a new ex-ploration is made on the development of China's democratic political system from the aspects of Party's leadership and operation supervision.

Bulgarian Intellectuals and Students and Their Notion of the Age of Socialism

In the years of the Bulgarian transition from Soviet-style state socialism to parliamentary democracy and market economy,the notions of the recent past experience profound changes.This process is predetermined by the new political imperative—the need to reorient the country from the Eastern bloc to the Western world.Changing the attitude of the Bulgarian society towards the socialist past is accomplished first through the change of curricula and textbooks,but also with the help of the media,which give floor to critics of socialism.Over time,however,especially since the neo-liberal economic transformations that took place under the so-called Washington Consensus led to deindustrialisation and high unemployment,a change in social attitude towards socialism began.In the 21st century,the attitude towards socialism changed.The total denial that prevailed in the 1990s gave way to a more nuanced picture—alongside the shortcomings and crimes,there are also talks about positive features of socialism such as social security and stability.This is evident both in the positions of the Bulgarian intellectuals and in the views of Bulgarian students about the socialist past.

Value Disclosure of Young Adults Through Social Media in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region as an Emerging Democracy

This study examines how accurate young adults in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, as an emerging democracy in the Middle East, express their core values through social media （Facebook in this context）. It also explores whether privacy affects with value disclosure. Findings show that value disclosure and definition of privacy varied greatly among respondents and from one value to another. Based on in-depth interview with 12 young adults, the study finds that religious, social, and cultural values have been easily and freely expressed on Facebook accounts by the majority of young adults, whereas other values such as honesty, freedom of speech, and political beliefs are being held by others mainly for privacy issues and political reasons. Democracy was a core value for some young adults seeking to make sense of the western principles of democracy and that reflect on their Facebook account. Results suggest that male respondents practice more freedom and less caution about their privacy than the female respondents on Facebook.

Political Disinformation on the Net and the Risk to Democracy

The essay aims at analyzing the relationship between the changes of political information,disseminated through the net,and the dangers to democracy.In particular,three topics will be addressed:the change of ways of making political information on the net;the new characteristics of political information disseminated on the net and the risk for democracy;the need to combat political disinformation on the net through adequate regulation.In this regard,the paper analyzes the measures adopted in some European countries,such as France,Germany,and Spain,aimed at countering disinformation online and fake news,especially in the field of political information,and the action started by the European Union for this purpose.The measures adopted by some European countries are aimed at:repressing the disinformation and fake news;providing transparency obligations for providers;promoting media literacy programs.Instead,the European Union preferred to resort to self-regulation by providers.In fact,although the European Union can adopt a regulation containing specific obligations for providers,for the moment it has provided for the adoption of a Code of good practice to combat disinformation which is not binding on them.In this regard,the paper analyzes the possible measures that States and European Union could introduce in order to combat the phenomenon of political disinformation able to influence the voters and condition the electoral competitions.Finally,the paper focuses on the effectiveness of these measures and their limits.

Educational Inequality： An Impediment to True Democracy in the United States

Many people believe that democracy is something that can lead everyone toward a better nation and a free and fair society. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education fundamentally changed the education system in the United States and was a turning point in the evolution of U,S. democracy that made the beautiful American dream available for each individual. However, six decades later, the debate over educational inequality continues. People are still fighting for their equality and well-being. Along with dramatically influential political, economic, and social factors in the United States, educational inequality destroys the commitment of this democratic nation to offer equal opportunity, care, and social justice to younger members of the community. This paper discusses the current problem of educational inequality as it relates to racial and socioeconomic discrimination in urban schools. The aim of this study is to explore knowledge of inequality in the U.S. school system and to raise social and educational awareness to help American children to have equal chances in education and to achieve future success.

Reassessing Human Rights VS Democracy of the Public:A Necessary Challenge?

Today,we are witnessing a profound transformation of the dominant model of representative democracy which is increasingly giving way to a new form of democracy of the public,as Bernard Manin defined it.In a democracy of the public,parties tend to personalise themselves,becoming machines serving one particular person,who embodies public feelings.Participation and social organization within the territory are progressively replaced by a widespread communication and social media framework where the citizens become just passive spectators.To this,we must add that the spectacularisation of the current democratic systems,adopted to satisfy the audience,leads to negative effects on the protection of fundamental rights.This article will analyse the aspects that characterise the democracies of the public,and their social and legal effects on the consideration of human rights.The article goes further without being limited to this issue.In fact,it wants to emphasise the way human rights are crucial to bolstering democracies,rather than merely the other way around.Doctrines and politics have frequently emphasised the need for democracy,and,more specifically,the export of democracies to advance human rights.Contrarily,a shift in perspective is required in order to preserve liberal democracies.

Influence of Civil Authority on Rural Grass-roots Democracy and Social Autonomy in Northwest Minority Regions

System of villagers autonomy is one of the basic political systems in China and one of those systems ensuring that the people are the masters of the country. Northwest minorities generally live in the remote northwestern China where economy and education are relatively underdeveloped compared with those in central and eastern China and civil authority has great influence on rural grass-roots democracy as well as social autonomy there,which causes difficulties to the development of rural democracy and social autonomy. Assisting northwest minority regions in overcoming the difficulties of developing grass-roots democracy and social autonomy,carrying out effective measures to properly guide the development and influence of civil authority and finally achieving the construction of new socialist countryside have great significance in ensuring that people there are the masters of their country.

Promoting Whole-Process People’s Democracy Following the Rule of Law

Whole-process people’s democracy profoundly reflects the features of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics,and comprehensively and systematically reveals the concept of people’s democracy as providing important mechanisms of national and social governance.Based on the traditional democratic understanding of democracy as majority rule,whole-process people’s democracy emphasizes the universality and extensive range of democratic governance,but also has the natural value defects of democratic value itself.Therefore,we must organically combine democracy with the values of the rule of law and human rights,to build a well-defined governance order based on people’s democratic value.The whole process in the“whole-process people’s democracy”has really resolved the situation of people’s“absence”from many links of state power operation caused by over-emphasizing the election-democracy in the Western capitalist democratic system.Through the people’s extensive participation and effective supervision,the state power operation mechanism based on the fundamental political system,the people’s congress system,has been ensured to be always in the framework of people’s democratic governance.This effectively realizes the people’s sovereignty and is consistent with the declaration that“all power in the People’s Republic of China(PRC)belongs to the people,”stipulated in the Constitution of China.To improve the governance efficiency of whole-process people’s democracy in practice,we must bring it onto the rule of law,and use the rule of law philosophy and methods to reasonably and effectively resolve all kinds of theoretical and practical problems.

A survey on the democratic qualities of high school students and the schooling for democracy

Using the method of purpositive sampling,this research makes an empirical study on the relationship between the schooling for education and democratic qualities of public high school students in Beijing.The results show that the democratic qualities of the students in public high school of Beijing are better as a whole,but they are still lack of democratic knowledge and abilities,etc.The results of correlation analysis,multiple regression analysis and independent-samples T test show that there are four different kinds of relationships between the schooling for education and democratic qualities of students.Firstly,there is little distinct correlation between school reputation and democratic knowledge,attitude and abilities of students.Secondly,there is little distinct correlation between prospective achievement and democratic knowledge and attitude of students,but have a large correlation with the democratic abilities of students(P<.001).Thirdly,there is a large correlation between teaching and democratic knowledge,attitude and abilities of students(P<.001).Lastly,there is a large correlation between activities participation and democratic knowledge,attitude and abilities of students(P<.001)

Deliberative Democracy and Political Civilization

The deliberative system embodies the essence of socialist democracy, and it is the theory achievements of socialistic politics civilization. As a supplement to the electoral system, the deliberative democracy system can make up for its inherent defects and to enhance the political decision-making more scientific, so we should carry forward the deliberative democracy to further develop the political civilization.

The socialist dimensions of democracy --with comments on the myth of the bourgeoisie and democratic politics

Barrington Moore＇s ＂No bourgeoisie, no democracy＂ made democracy a monopoly of the bourgeoisie. Today, this has evolved into Huntington＇s thesis that the middle class has brought with it democracy. Proceeding from the relationship between the history of the socialist movement and comparative institutional change, we find that democracy has experienced a process of development involving the combination of positive and negative, from its original purpose of realizing majority rule in which everyone is equal to a tool for protecting the property rights of the minority, viz. the bourgeoisie, and thence to a tool for the mass of the people to realize equal rights today. In the course of its development, the main contribution of the bourgeoisie has been constitution-building and elite democracy, while the advent of mass democracy should be attributed to the workers＇ movement with the lower classes as its main force and to the struggles of other non-bourgeois strata. To gain a renewed awareness of the socialist attribute of democracy on the basis of an examination of the historical course of democracy helps us question the universality of a social science shaped by particular experiences.

社会许可的理论机制与实践逻辑——一个关于环境邻避项目的混合研究

社会许可是受项目影响地区的利益相关者对于该项目的持续接受和支持程度,如何在邻避项目中获得社会认可已成为困扰公共治理的重要难题。引发冲突的因素复杂多样。本文基于行为公共管理学的社会许可概念,将获得邻避项目的社会许可作为研究目标,从社会公平视角出发考察全过程人民民主理念在获得社会许可中的关键作用。基于B县垃圾焚烧项目案例和心理学实验(N=820)分析发现,作为全过程人民民主理念的重要维度,社会公平对于社会许可具有核心影响。具体而言,决策过程的程序公平和执行过程的分配公平均可助推社会许可,而政府信任和风险感知起到双重调节作用。研究还显示,公众获得感的增强是获得社会许可的长效机制。因此,社会公平需要和与之匹配的个体主观认知相辅相成,才能最终化解邻避冲突,实现社会许可。本研究为全过程人民民主理念提供了经验证据和数据支持。

制度现代化:中国式现代化的关键要素

中国式现代化是中国共产党领导的以人民为主体和中心的现代化,是进一步彰显中国特色社会主义制度本质和优势的现代化,其关键在于制度现代化。中国式现代化赋予制度现代化以鲜明特质和突出优势:坚持人民至上,彰显党性与人民性的有机统一;坚持自信自立,彰显改革性与定型化的有机统一;坚持守正创新,彰显传承性与时代性的有机统一。中国式现代化的核心要素,对进一步深化体制改革和制度创新、不断推进制度现代化提出了更高要求。围绕中国式现代化核心要素,深入推进制度现代化要着力解决的关键问题是:进一步完善党的领导制度体系,确保党始终走在现代化前列;进一步完善全过程人民民主制度体系,确保人民当家作主;进一步完善政府治理制度体系,确保经济社会高质量发展;进一步完善社会治理制度体系,确保社会全面进步和人的全面发展。

新时代发展社会组织协商的逻辑进路

社会组织协商是社会主义协商民主的重要渠道,是基层协商的重要组成部分。党的二十大提出“坚持党的领导、统一战线、协商民主有机结合”的战略部署,为发展社会组织协商提供更为宏阔的创新空间,三者“有机结合”形成推动社会组织协商的强大动力源。党的领导为社会组织协商提供根本政治保证,统一战线为社会组织协商画出最大“同心圆”,协商民主为社会组织协商规定本质内容。社会组织要以加强自身建设为起点,积极融入坚持党的领导、统一战线、协商民主有机结合的伟大实践之中,在坚持三者“有机结合”的坐标系和动力场内积极参与、发展协商民主。

社会主义制度在东欧的建立——兼谈东欧苏联化的背景、过程和领域

苏联化是1945年后苏联对东欧战略的重要组成部分。东欧的苏联化涉及调节国家间关系,划定这些国家的边界,通过驱逐和人口转移来确定这些国家的民族构成,参与制定这些国家的宪法,并决定这些国家的政府组成。苏联化旨在通过改变当地社会的许多方面和重建文化生活,使苏联的官方意识形态成为东欧国家个人生活的指导思想。苏联化导致两个后果:其一,苏联化使苏联得以与东欧国家组成东方集团,并通过经互会和华约长期控制东欧国家,使绝大多数东欧国家成为冷战的一方,并脱离了原有的社会经济发展轨道;其二,苏联化在诸多方面与东欧国家的历史和政治与经济传统不适应,导致自20世纪50年代中期起,东欧国家一直在以不同的方式寻找符合本民族特性和利益的发展道路,并最终导致1989—1991年东欧国家政局剧变,彻底抛弃苏联模式,重拾两次世界大战间存在于这些国家的政治和经济发展模式。

全过程人民民主与乡村监督体系的优化路径

乡村振兴背景下,国家向农村投入大量财政资金,基层治理发生了从重视激励到重视监管的转变,构建有效的乡村监督体系成为基层治理现代化的核心议题。在乡村社会变迁和基层治理转型的过程中,既有的社会性监督方式的作用日益弱化,难以保障国家资源的安全和有效使用。主流的行政性监督方式在破解村级权力滥用问题的同时带来了基层自主权的弱化和严重的形式主义问题。结合实践经验,地方政府在村民自治的基础上探索全过程人民民主实践,形成了一种制度性民主监督方式。制度性民主监督方式可以使普通农民参与到国家资源使用的公共决策、决策执行和决策评估的全过程中,实现全体农民参与的直接民主,在破解村级权力滥用的同时保持基层自主权。从比较角度看,制度性民主监督方式与基层监督的特点相适配,具有成本低且效率高的优势,有利于推进基层治理现代化的实现。

传统到新型:政务热线驱动基层社会治理创新

基层社会治理是国家治理体系的重要组成部分,政务热线驱动基层社会治理创新成为学界关注的重点议题,而政务热线改革与全过程人民民主实践具有高度的契合性,由此可引入全过程人民民主视角对该重点议题进行探讨。研究发现,“以人民为中心”是政务热线改革的主线,党建引领促进基层社会的统合治理,人民群众全过程参与促进基层社会的强参与式治理,政府全过程回应促进基层社会的主动回应式治理,技术支撑促进基层社会的智慧化治理,实现了基层社会治理由传统的以任务为导向、碎片化、弱参与式、被动回应式、粗放化治理模式向以人民为中心、统合、强参与式、主动回应式、智慧化治理模式转变,从而驱动了基层社会治理创新。为此,政务热线改革要以全过程人民民主为基本遵循,发挥“以人民为中心”、党建引领、人民群众全过程参与、政府全过程回应、技术支撑等要素作用,从而推动基层社会治理效能提高。

走向“社会民主”——英国早期费边社的民主观

费边社会主义是19世纪、20世纪之交英国重要的社会思潮,而早期费边社的民主观是理解费边社会主义的关键。从萧伯纳到韦伯夫妇,再到柯尔,费边社各届领导人都通过重构民主概念来阐述各自的社会主义思想。解析早期费边社民主观的内涵与流变,反映出他们是如何将西式民主融入到社会主义思想中,从而又产生了何种内在矛盾性。

从忧郁个体到伟大心灵:威廉·詹姆斯实用主义的个体宗教观

19世纪末,威廉·詹姆斯开启的个体宗教转向深刻地影响了美国公民宗教传统的重建。本文尝试从思想史的争讼出发,讨论詹姆斯的宗教功能论重构现代社会道德生活的独特方法及其与美国公民宗教传统的复杂关联。詹姆斯的个体宗教研究从忧郁个体的问题入手,通过剖析作为一种生存体验的忧郁,在现代个体的心灵问题与救赎宗教传统之间建立了关联,并以重新诠释救赎经验来寻找能够解放狭隘人格的生命意蕴和情感力量。在詹姆斯看来,个体对人类普遍命运的具身化体认才是激活现代民主神圣性的机制。阐明这一重新创造的神圣性传统,不仅有助于我们在道德生活中检视现代忧郁个体的问题,而且有助于我们理解美国社会民主传统的新的动力学——在日常生活中关切同胞生活苦乐的道德实践。

中国特色社会主义基层直接民主的理论基础、实践演进和发展机理

发展基层直接民主是新时代中国特色社会主义基层民主政治建设的新动向,需系统解读其理论基础、实践演进与发展机理。马克思主义民主理论对于民主政治范式选择与运行场域的科学诠释,有效回应了为什么推行直接民主与直接民主为什么需要在基层、只能在基层的重要问题。中国基层直接民主经历了新民主主义革命时期民主意识的初步觉醒、社会主义革命和建设时期发展蓝图的基本绘制、改革开放和社会主义现代化建设时期民主制度的体系化建设以及中国特色社会主义新时代民主机制的丰富优化,表现出“实践储备—理念成型—基础巩固—质量提升”的阶段性特征。迈入中国式现代化建设新征程的基层直接民主具有独特的发展机理,即以执政党引领基层直接民主的运行过程、以组织优化破解基层直接民主的规模困境、以全过程实践厘定基层直接民主的内容范畴。