by nationalised industries. Hence, peasants do not stand on the right side of the
deterministic linear history towards modernisation. But in the Chinese context,
peasants have so far been the majority of the population; China also has to
accommodate their political aspirations until the process of industrialisation has
assimilated most rural residents into a working class. Simultaneously, China always
keeps an eye on the peasants’ political participation to prevent their populous
majority outvoting the others.
Against this background, the 1979 Electoral Law actually gave urban areas
an eight times larger quota of NPC representatives than rural areas. In 1995 , the
ratio of urban NPC representatives to rural deputies was reduced to 4 – 1. It was not
until the 2000 s that Chinese modernisation could finally produce a sound number
of urban residents which is almost equal to the number of Chinese peasants.
Logically, by 2010 there has been no ideological or political reason to maintain
the ‘ 1 / 4 article’ any more, as rural legislators can never overturn their urban
counterparts. In light of this, the newly revised Electoral Law has rightly changed
the rural–urban ratio to 1 – 1. However, further urbanisation will continuously lift
the number of urban representatives at people’s congresses. In the next elections,
the number of Chinese rural legislators will reach the ceiling, but eventually the
‘majority-takes-all’ democratic process will remarginalise Chinese peasants’ voices.
The government of law
The principle of the rule of law has been strengthened in the executive branch.
Randall Peerenboom states:
At its most basic, rule of law refers to a system in which law is able to
impose meaningful restraints on the state and individual members of
the ruling elite, as captured in the rhetorically powerful if overly
simplistic notions of a government of law, the supremacy of the law,
and equality of all before the law.
18In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Chinese government issued two
guidelines,Guofa[ 2004 ]No 10 andGuofa[ 2010 ]No 33 , to show its determination
to establish a government of law. The 2004 guideline requires local governments to
use their powers in line with the principles of legality, rationality, proportionality,
procedural prosperity, efficiency, effectiveness, openness and responsibility.
19
The
2010 guideline further requires:
(^18) Randall Peerenboom,China’s Long March toward Rule of Law(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2002 ), p. 2.
(^19) State Council Notice on Acceleration of Implementation of the Rule of Law Guidelines
(Guowuyuan guanyu yinfa quanmian tuijin yifa xingzheng shishi gangyao de tongzhi)
Guofa[ 2004 ]No 10.