Transforming the advantages of the new political party system into governance efficiency

　　In March, 2018, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader summarized the multi-party cooperation and political consultation system led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) as a new political party system for the first time at the National People’s Congress. With a broad global vision and profound historical vision, he discussed the differences between this political party system and the old political party system from three dimensions: foundation, functional advantages and value significance. The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a basic political system in China and an important part of the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity. It is of great significance to give full play to the advantages of the new political party system and transform the institutional advantages into governance efficiency for formulating and implementing the 14 th Five-Year Plan and the long-term goal in 2035.

　　The important role of the new political party system in state governance

　　The multi-party cooperation system has the political functions of political participation, interest expression, social integration, democratic supervision and maintaining stability, and has the institutional advantages of unique representation, efficient mobilization, policy continuity and great inclusiveness. Communist party’s leadership, multi-party cooperation, communist party’s ruling and multi-party participation in politics are the distinctive features of this political party system. The multi-party cooperation system is rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese civilization, developed in the great practice of China’s revolution, construction and reform, and is a political party system that grew from the soil of China. It can effectively integrate all social forces, work together for national governance and socialist modernization, and gather wisdom and strength for realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

　　China’s successful response to the COVID-19 epidemic is a concentrated review of China’s national governance capacity and a concentrated test of the effectiveness of various systems, including China’s political party system. In the face of the sudden epidemic, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the mainstay, and the whole country is United. All democratic parties and personages without party affiliation have responded positively, put themselves into the front line of fighting the epidemic, and actively made suggestions and donated money and materials. The vivid case of fighting the COVID-19 epidemic fully demonstrates the institutional effectiveness and superiority of China’s new political party system.

　　The multi-party cooperation system faces new opportunities and challenges.

　　Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has systematically promoted theoretical innovation, institutional innovation and practical innovation of multi-party cooperation system, and multi-party cooperation has taken on a new look. Since the international financial crisis, especially since the COVID-19 epidemic this year, the obvious gap between China and some western countries in governance efficiency has further demonstrated the political advantages of China’s political system, including multi-party cooperation. The development of multi-party cooperation system faces a broader development space than before. At the same time, we should also deeply realize that the changes of major contradictions in domestic society and the complicated external environment in the world have brought new challenges to multi-party cooperation.

　　(1) The new challenge of building consensus. Our country is in the historical intersection of the goal of "two hundred years". Facing more external environment and profound domestic development environment, the feeling of "the boat reaches the midstream and the man reaches the middle of the mountain" is more obvious, and the task of unifying thoughts and rallying strength is heavier. With the profound transformation of modern society and the profound adjustment of social structure, various interests are constantly stimulated. Different groups and individuals have differences in interests and cultural backgrounds, and people’s ideas and behaviors are more diverse, making it more difficult to integrate social ideology. The more we face the complicated situation and severe challenges, the more we need to hold high the banner, firm the direction, raise awareness and deepen consensus, the more we need to strengthen our self-confidence, inspire our fighting spirit, work with one heart and one mind, and the more we need to adhere to the development of the multi-party cooperation system and unite the ideological and political consensus of unity and struggle.

　　(2) New challenges of gathering strength. Institutional advantage produces governance efficiency, but institutional advantage does not necessarily bring governance efficiency. At present, China has turned to the stage of high-quality development, with remarkable institutional advantages, improved governance efficiency, long-term economic improvement and strong development resilience. At the same time, the problem of insufficient development imbalance in China is still outstanding. To transform institutional advantages into governance efficiency, we must conform to the new requirements of state governance for multi-party cooperation, including how to adapt to the changes of the times and expand the inclusiveness of multi-party cooperation; How to better coordinate the interests of all parties and expand the orderly expression path of interests; How to implement the new development concept and promote high-quality economic development; How to better carry out democratic supervision and strengthen power constraints. The multi-party cooperation system should gather the strength of all parties to reduce resistance, add assistance and cohesion for national governance.

　　(3) New challenges in the construction of participating parties. Multi-party cooperation has entered a new era, and the situation of democratic parties has also undergone profound changes. In terms of nature, from "close friends" to "participating parties" and then to "participating parties in Socialism with Chinese characteristics", the positioning of democratic parties is becoming clearer and clearer, and its role in national political life is becoming more and more important; In terms of membership changes, the new generation who joined the democratic parties after the reform and opening up has become the main body. They are active in thinking, broad in vision and good at understanding and thinking about problems from a rational perspective, but their political identity, ideological identity and emotional identity for multi-party cooperation need to be strengthened. Only by constantly adapting to the needs of the times and strengthening self-construction can democratic parties better perform their functions and give full play to the due role of participating parties.

　　(D) the new challenges of external changes. Influenced by the global economic downturn, especially the COVID-19 epidemic, the party politics in western countries has undergone profound changes, from centripetal competition to centrifugal competition, with populism, separatism and extremism prevailing, while the party system in China has shown good governance efficiency. More and more people realize that "the rule of China" is the advantage of political stability and a well-run political system and party system. However, the instability and uncertainty of the external environment have obviously increased, the COVID-19 epidemic has accelerated the evolution of the great changes, and the world has entered a period of turbulent change. Based on the prejudice of social system and ideology, some western countries stick to the new Cold War mentality and take China’s political system and political party system as a breakthrough to attack, slander, contain and suppress. The multi-party cooperation system faces unprecedented external opportunities and challenges. How to actively respond to changes in the external environment, maintain political strength, and demonstrate institutional advantages has raised new issues for multi-party cooperation.

　　Promote the new party system to play a greater role in state governance.

　　Those who are good at playing games seek the potential. In the face of new changes and challenges, multi-party cooperation should be good at seeking potential, handle the relationship between "state" and "potential", "crisis" and "opportunity", "change" and "unchanged", foster opportunities in the crisis, and open up new opportunities in the changing situation, so as to help modernize the national governance system and governance capacity with better institutional efficiency.

　　(1) Consolidate the common ideological and political foundation of unity and struggle. The common ideological and political foundation is the lifeline of multi-party cooperation, which is directly related to whether the direction is correct and the foundation is solid. To develop multi-party cooperation, it is the first priority to consolidate the ideological and political foundation of unity and struggle. It is necessary to unite the political consensus of adhering to the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), strengthen the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four self-confidences" and achieve the "two maintenance"; Adhere to Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s political consensus and unswervingly follow the path of political development in Socialism with Chinese characteristics; Consolidate the political consensus on adhering to the development and improvement of the multi-party cooperation system, more clearly understand the important position of China’s political party system in state governance, and consciously contribute to adhering to, developing and improving multi-party cooperation.

　　(2) Stimulate the effectiveness of the multi-party cooperation system. The multi-party cooperation is better embedded in the decision-making process of the ruling party and the state and the process of China’s economic and social development, highlighting the effectiveness of multi-party cooperation in state governance. Standardize political party consultation, strictly implement the frequency, steps and time requirements of consultation, standardize consultation feedback procedures, and create a good political party consultation environment. We will improve the mechanism of knowing and being clear about government affairs, hold regular special briefings and situation reports, and strengthen the protection of democratic parties to carry out research and investigation. Summarize the experience of democratic supervision in poverty alleviation, study the mechanism of supporting democratic parties to carry out special democratic supervision, and further play the role of multi-party cooperation in the national supervision system.

　　(3) Strengthening the construction of participating parties in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. From the perspective of national governance, a good political party system needs not only a strong ruling party that can exercise strong leadership over the country, but also well-developed participating parties that play a positive role in the ruling party. The construction of participating parties in China has made positive progress in recent years, but there is still a gap compared with the requirements of national governance. In accordance with the general requirements of "four new and three good" put forward by the Supreme Leader General Secretary, we should implement the spirit of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s important document on the deployment of the United front and multi-party cooperation, and strive to build Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s participating parties with firm politics, solid organization, strong performance, excellent style and sound system.

　　(4) Tell the story of multi-party cooperation in China. It is necessary to deepen the theoretical and policy research on multi-party cooperation. Based on China’s basic national conditions, focusing on the modernization goal of state governance and the needs of China’s democratic political development, we should organically combine Marxist political party theory with the practice of China’s political party system, and provide theoretical basis for multi-party cooperation policy innovation. It is necessary to intensify the propaganda of multi-party cooperation. Make use of important time nodes and major events, adapt to the development trend of the all-media era, make good use of mainstream media and various new media, carefully design new media propaganda, and expand the social influence of multi-party cooperation. It is necessary to enrich the propaganda content, take the participation of democratic parties in fighting the epidemic as a breakthrough to tell a good story, and increase the appeal of the story with typical cases. It is necessary to expand the ability of external publicity, organically combine "speaking by yourself" with "speaking by others" and "going out" with "please come in", actively carry out exchanges and interactions with other countries, enhance understanding and exchange, and make China’s political party system win wider international recognition.

　　(Author: School of International Studies, Renmin University of China)