I feel like I shouldn't be ignorant about stuff like that when they are playing more and more of a role on the world stage and the US is ramping up hostilities.

  • Owl [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Thanks for researching and making a big summary!

    Asking questions for whoever knows the answers.

    Hostile parties are illegal

    What are the bounds on this? If someone built a party around a different communist idea, like more emphasis on workplace democracy (syndies) or more emphasis on computerized planning (cybersyn), would that be within the legal bounds?

    (I checked the existing secondary parties but it seems to be mostly the leftover dregs of historical splitter movements, so I didn't learn anything about present practice.)

    Representatives are elected by regional congresses, the representatives of which are elected by local congresses, the representatives of which are elected form villages/neighborhoods

    What sort of election processes do these use? FPTP? Party list? Consensus?

    These elections have a limited number of candidates per seat (like a 100:130-150 ratio).

    I didn't understand this bit, could you clarify?

    • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      The CPC runs things at the national level pretty much unopposed but down at the lower levels one might be able to try out some different stuff. The only trade union allowed in China is the ACFTU which has 302 million members and is kind of a state organization so you wouldn't see a syndicalist party. As far as I'm aware, a lot of the economic policy is done at the provincial level with the national government setting quotas and things like that and those are also largely controlled by the CPC. That being said, the CPC is not some immobile bureaucracy that can't evolve like the late USSR was.

      As for your second question, here is the 1979 law on elections which I believe is still the current one.

      CHAPTER VIII ELECTION PROCEDURE

      [Article 31] Where the deputies to a people's congress are to be elected directly by the voters, the election shall be conducted at polling centres in the various electoral districts or at election meetings. The polling centres or election meetings shall be presided over by the election committee.

      [Article 32] Where a local people's congress at or above the county level is to elect deputies to the people's congress at the next higher level, the election shall be presided over by the presidium of the lower people's congress.

      [Article 33] The election of deputies to the national and local people's congresses shall be by secret ballot.

      If a voter is illiterate or handicapped and is therefore unable to write his ballot, he may entrust another person to write it for him.

      [Article 34] A voter may vote for or against a candidate for deputy and may vote instead for any other voter or abstain.

      [Article 35] A voter who is absent from his electoral district during the time of an election may, with the approval of the election committee and by written authorization, entrust another voter with a proxy vote. A voter shall not stand proxy for more than three persons.

      [Article 36] When balloting has been concluded, scrutinizers and vote counters elected by the voters or deputies and members of the election committee or members of the presidium of the people's congress shall check the number of people who voted against the number of voter cast and make a record of it; the record shall be signed by the scrutinizers.

      [Article 37] An election shall be null and void if the number of votes cast is greater than the number of people who voted, and it shall be valid if the number of votes cast is less than the number of people who voted.

      A ballot shall be null and void if more candidates are voted for than the number of deputies to be elected, and it shall be valid if fewer candidates are voted for than the number of deputies to be elected.

      [Article 38] In a direct election of deputies to the people's congresses, the election shall be valid if more than half of all the voters in an electoral district cast their votes. Candidates for deputies shall be elected only if they have obtained more than half of the votes cast by the voters that take part in the election.

      When a local people's congress at or above the county level is to elect deputies to a people's congress at the next hgiher level, candidates for deputies shall be elected only if they have obtained more than half of the votes of all the deputies.

      When the number of candidates for deputies who have obtained more than half of the votes exceeds the number of deputies to be elected, those who have obtained the most votes shall be elected. If the number of votes for some candidates is tied, making it impossible to determine who is elected, another balloting shall be conducted between those candidates to resolve the tie.

      If the number of elected deputies who have obtained more than half of the votes is less than the number of deputies to be elected, another election shall be held among the candidates for deputies who failed to be elected to make up the difference. Those who obtain the most votes shall be elected; however, to be elected they must obtain no less than one third of the votes cast.

      [Article 39] The election committee or the presidium of the people's congress shall determine, in accordance with this Law, whether or not the result of an election is valid and shall announce it accordingly.

      For your third question, iridaniotter's answer is correct as far as I'm aware however chapter 8 of that law is on nomination of candidates so you can read that if you want more info

      • Owl [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Thanks!

        So, summarizing: An election is for multiple candidates to fill N interchangeable seats. Voters can vote for up to N candidates. The top N candidates who received at least 50% of the vote get seats. If fewer than N candidates meet the 50% threshold, a runoff election is run with the leftovers until all seats are filled.

        It sounds like it should have a roughly equivalent result to approval voting, though it's a lot more work to get that result. Approval voting is very good though.

        The 10:13-10:15 ratio rule is still weird to me. I wonder what that's for.

        • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          The 10:13-15 thing is just so that there is a candidate pool to choose from and there is some competition. Competitive elections are usually considered important for democratic society (whatever that means). If you have 150 candidates to fill 100 seats, you have competition (even if the ideological difference isn't that significant), and ideally the Chinese government would like to see between 130 and 150 candidates for that 100 seat election, that way its not just the party picking candidates in candidate selection, the people have some choice.

          There really isn't a great translation to US politics because of how representation works here, but it would be kind of like the federal government mandating there be at least two candidates in an election for a city council seat.

          • Owl [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Oh, the low end of the limit is great. I guess I'm more surprised by the high end being only 1.5x the number of seats. My local elections usually have five candidates per position (of course they're FPTP so only two matter).