THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN CHINESE LEGISLATIVE POLITICS.

摘要

This study explains what the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) does and why its importance has varied over time. It tracks legislative participation in lawmaking, oversight, representation, and regime support and treats the NPC as a window through which to view evolving Party-society and Party-state relations. It shows how historical and structural considerations affect the development of political institutions and how institutional change is one component of systemic, political change. From the vantage point of one organization, it casts light on the broad character of the Chinese polity--how open or closed it is, how authoritarian or even democratic it may be becoming.; This work finds that for much of its first generation (1954-1976) the NPC operated in an inhospitable environment enfeebled by an ineffectual structure. Organizational constraints, including indirect elections, unwieldy size, brief, infrequent sessions, and weak committees, handcuffed the legislature, while external jolts hindered its development and ultimately caused decline. In an era of shifting "political winds" and increasing radicalism, the NPC was a fifth wheel--superflous and thus expendable.; Despite such inauspicious beginnings, this study finds considerable legislative rejuvenation and strengthening since 1976. It shows how elite power struggle motives and a widely-shared commitment to stability, efficiency, and modernization combined to spur reforms that have produced lively plenary sessions and have enabled the NPC to play a consultative, moderating, and rationalizing role in the political system. At the same time, this work reveals continuing unwillingness to adopt truly liberal reforms, which suggests that steps toward more predictable and inclusive one-party rule need not entail increased political competition or institutionalized responsiveness.; The research for this study was conducted both in China and in the United States and is largely based on primary sources.