People asked me, "To what do you attribute China's success today?" Without hesitation, I answered, "Democracy. True democracy."
The vicious cycles of divisiveness in U.S. society today should remind us vividly of the same situation in Germany during the 1920s. Populist factions were constantly at each other's throats. The established political parties were ineffective and could not form a workable consensus on anything. At the end, the people "democratically" elected a new leader with an overwhelming majority, Adolf Hitler.
To re-examine the efficacy of different forms of democracy today, the world should pay special attention to China's approach of consultative democracy.
History tells us that democracies can devolve into very horrific scenarios (Nazi Germany being a prime example).
It is imperative that we understand what true democracy is. We must avoid falling into the web of lies and untruths embedded in some of the major Western democratic models.
At the same time, we should gain an understanding of how China has become a strong nation, by practicing an advanced form of democracy, called consultative democracy, with the well-being of the people as its central goal.
The consultative essence of democracy
From its ancestral origin, the essence of democracy is the effective consultation with the constituents of a political entity. Such consultation may take many forms. The constituencies may vary. The degree and way in which their members are represented may be different, from entity to entity, from nation to nation.
The viable structure and process of democracy depend on the population size, the social differentiation and technological mode of a society, among other factors. The mechanisms to achieve good democracy must therefore evolve over time.
Most people in the world today think that democracy simply means holding a general election to choose a leader. That can be a very dangerous travesty. What works for a country with a small population, for example, does not work for a large and complex technological society, or a country with multiple ethnicities. Elections can also be hijacked by groups with disproportionate power and means, such as what Big Money has done to the people of the United States.
Many so-called "democratic" countries in the world today, including some that champion their own model as "universal," have in fact departed significantly from the essence of consultation. Many of them are experiencing chronic populisms, which reflect their political consultative dysfunctions. Elections have become irrational fanfares, and a tool to con the public into conceding power to a minority of vested interest groups.
Consultative effectiveness
For democracy to produce good governance, the people consulted must be relevant to the specific issues at hand, not just anybody and everybody, on everything. It must give due weight to the views of the people most affected by those issues, with the benefit of proper information, investigation and recommendation of specialists as to the public good.
In today's highly complex technological societies, we cannot afford to let the ill-informed lead the unknowledgeable. Even worse, many advanced nations nowadays are allowing those with vested interests and ulterior motives to fudge the facts, muck up the issues, play on the people's emotions, and herd them through electoral fanfares. Politicians only care about their electability, little about their responsibilities.
Segmentations and representations
In the West, elections are very much alive, but not well. Their electoral processes may symbolize the existence of democracy in form, but they lack consultative substance.
Democratic elections may be direct or indirect, general or specific. All electoral processes in the world today involve segmental representations. It is the case in America and Europe, and it is the case in China.
To China's credit, it has developed highly differentiated segmentations and effective functional representations in its consultative democracy. The process is detail-oriented, goes deep into the grassroots, and deals directly with substantive and practical issues, on an ongoing basis. Step by step, the detailed consultative results and consensus are tabulated and addressed, some ultimately at the national level.
Annually, the massive amounts of democratic consultative proceedings are summated. At the topmost level of the consultative structure is the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The more than 2,000 members represent tens of thousands of provincial and city committees of the CPPCC, other local people's consultative bodies, community groups and functional constituencies. They meet to formalize their advice and recommendations to the various branches of government.
Usually one day after the CPPCC starts its annual meeting, the National People's Congress (NPC) will be convened. The NPC, the top legislative body of China, will vote to legislate the recommendations into laws necessary for their implementation. At the same time, the nation's goals and plans, both short term and long term, are approved by the NPC and laid out in detailed documentation.
A senior McKinsey partner and friend once said: "This is what we would see in a well-run big corporation – detailed research, analyses and reporting, management committees, shareholders committees, functional task forces, stakeholders meetings, etc. China Inc. is only a thousand times bigger and very professionally run!"
As a result of this elaborate process of consultative democracy, China is able to achieve remarkably good governance, and provide a stable and solid foundation for growth and social progress.
(The author is a retired international investment banker and certified public accountant. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in international relations and earned his MBA in finance from Columbia Business School.)