Abstract
This article traces the evolution of representative claim-making by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 up to the present day. Based on the analysis of official political discourses on the mass line, the Three Represents and more recent ongoing discourses on digitalization, we demonstrate the change and continuity of claim-making by the CCP. We show that while representative claim-making has undergone a significant transformation from the CCP as the representative of the working class to the sole representative of the Chinese people and nation, the CCP has been consistent throughout decades in maintaining its hegemony over representative claim-making.
Highlights
In this article we analyze the evolution of official discourses on political representation by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 up to the present day
We have seen that his concept of embodiment representation allows us to approach the CCP’s representative claims in terms of symbolic representation and substantive representation, and to grasp its political-legal dimension despite the absence of direct elections of top leaders
We examined the evolution of the CCP’s representative claim-making since 1949 to the present day and draw the following conclusions
Summary
In this article we analyze the evolution of official discourses on political representation by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 up to the present day. Distinction, description and substantive forms are individual categories that are applicable to the realization of both political-legal and symbolic representation. Under the influence of Lenin’s vanguard Party concept, the CCP combined representative claims pertaining to both political-legal (identity) and symbolic representation, with alternative claims of descriptive distinction representation and above all substantive representation. At the turn of the millennium, the official discourse becomes more openly elitist and technocratic to improve substantive representation (performance) Another object of the representative claim surfaces, namely the nation (which should be richer and stronger), but it tallies with the still prevalent claim to represent all the Chinese people.
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