Party bestows more power on delegates in major reform
In a potentially wide-reaching reform, the Communist Party has handed more power to delegates, allowing them to participate in party affairs more often and in a greater capacity than before.
Under previous arrangements, the central and local party committees, made up of elite members, took charge of party matters, while delegates exercised their rights - largely nominal - only at meetings held every five years.
The new initiatives introduce a 'tenure system' for delegates to party congresses at all levels, allowing them to take part in decision-making throughout the year.
'Before now, they [delegates] exercised their rights only once in five years, due to a lack of institutional channels to facilitate a genuine fulfilment of their roles,' Wang Yukai, professor of party affairs and public policy at the National School of Administration, said.
'Previously, being a party delegate was largely a ceremonial position without much substance.'
The new mechanism would 'effectively add power to party delegates' and 'subject the party elite to greater accountability', he said.
The tenure system, announced by Xinhua on Wednesday, allows delegates to attend party committee meetings at their own level and give feedback and suggestions, even on party committee members.
For example, around 2,200 delegates to the National Party Congress that serves until 2012 may attend the plenary session of the Central Committee - the party's preliminary decision-making body - which usually convenes once a year, Professor Wang said. Their opinions were also to be sought out and considered.
These national delegates may also sit in on the meetings of the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI), the party's top anti-graft agency, monitoring its disciplinary reports and providing opinions.
The party elite - including 371 Central Committee members and 127 CCDI members - will be accountable to national party delegates, briefing them on decision-making and policy implementation.
Delegates at provincial and local levels are entitled to play a similar role at those levels. Their rights include participating in party cadre appointments and evaluations.
When the party committees are out of session, delegates may organise discussions on policies and launch research and investigations into major party issues and decisions, according to Xinhua.
The party committees are obliged to pay the costs involved. Those found trying to obstruct delegates from acting as monitors or taking revenge against them would be punished. Xinhua quoted one party delegate from Huizhou, Guangdong, as saying: 'A big meeting [the party congress] should not be the only form of participation; we need different forms or channels to give our views and suggestions on major party matters.'
The main challenge was the chasm between what was on the books and its implementation, Professor Wang warned.
Questions remain, for instance, about just how willing local party committees will be to cough up funding for delegates' research and investigation efforts.
For many analysts, while the initiatives do not constitute democratic processes as recognised in western countries, they nonetheless represent serious efforts to broaden what Beijing calls intraparty democracy.
Beijing wanted to enliven the Communist Party from the bottom up, giving fuller scope to cadres' participation, rather than just having them rubber-stamp decisions made at higher levels, Ren Jianming, a professor of public policy at Tsinghua University, said.
'The goal is, via finding viable checks and balances, to curb corruption, strengthen the party apparatus and improve governance,' Professor Ren said.
Other incremental steps taken towards greater intraparty democracy over the past few years have included expanding competitive elections at the local level.
Some analysts believe that the development of intraparty democracy is significant for the nation's long-term political reform.
They consider a Communist Party that accepts open debate, internal leadership elections, and decision-making by ballot to be a prerequisite for democracy in the country as a whole.
'The party will proceed carefully and gradually,' said Professor Ren. 'But at least they are taking some steps.'
Big bloc party
The Chinese Communist Party is the world's biggest political organisation
The number of members: 75m