Topic: 2025 – Authoritarianism and Democracy
Country: China
Delegate Name: Abby Huffman
Special Political and Decolonization Committee
Authoritarianism and Democracy
People’s Republic of China
Abby Huffman
Forest Hills Eastern High School
For centuries, questions about how best to govern diverse societies have shaped international debate. Today, these debates have focused on the tension between standing democracies and the rise of more centralized systems. Major recent analyses, including The Global State of Democracy and V-Dem’s 2023 dataset, report that approximately 52% of citizens agreed that having a strong leader, who is not influenced by legislatures and elections, is a positive thing for a nation. The V-Dem dataset finds that approximately 71% of the world’s population now live under autocratic governments. The UN and its agencies, notably the UNDP, have worked with civil society and scholarly institutions, have drawn attention to how inequality and economic stagnation erode trust in institutions and incentivize demand for decisive rule. Moreover, the rise of states like China, which promotes a development-first, sovereignty-centered governance model, has intensified debates over what constitutes legitimate democracy. This committee must address these trends because institutional fragility and economic exclusion threaten regional stability and prosperity of citizens.
The People’s Republic of China’s position emphasizes sovereign choice, social development, and institution-building over prescriptive political models of democracy. According to “Our World in Data”, China is a “closed autocracy.” China, however, describes its system as “whole-process people’s democracy,” arguing that legitimacy comes from delivering tangible improvements in citizens’ lives and broadly consultative policymaking rather than a single electoral formula. For example, in China, elections occur under a one-party political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), yet there are multiple national parties that serve in an advising capacity to the current government leaders. There are over 10,000 party consultative meetings annually at local levels. The success of China’s unique system is also evident through the largest civil service in the world (over 7 million officials) that the nation maintains. After the Revolution of 1911, Chinese people made numerous attempts to introduce the Western political systems, including the parliamentary system, multiparty system, and presidential system. However, these events ended in failure. China’s current system has seen much more success. Under the leadership of the CCP, the people’s congress framework, socialist consultative mechanisms, and extensive grassroots participation, China’s “whole-procees people’s democracy” is democratically effective because it produces real-world results. In the past 40 years, China has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty. Data from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center shows that 95.5% of Chinese citizens report being “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with the national government, one of the highest approval levels globally, reinforcing China’s belief that its governance model enjoys broad public legitimacy. As a result, China maintains that no single electoral blueprint should be imposed by the UN and that states must retain sovereign discretion to pursue democratic forms suited to their historical and social conditions.
The People’s Republic of China urges the Special Political and Decolonization Committee
to adopt resolutions that recognize diverse political systems which are respective to individual nations’ needs. Furthermore, the committee’s focus should be on strengthening the institutions that uphold stability and development. The committee must reaffirm that no single model of democracy is universally applicable, and, instead, states should retain the sovereign right to develop governance systems with national characteristics. China calls for non-interference in domestic political processes and discourages sanctions aimed to influence the domestic proceedings of other nations. In conclusion, China urges the committee to focus on practical, development-first solutions that strengthen states, protect stability, and ensure that all nations can pursue governance systems that best serve their people.
Sources:
https://glica.org/glimun/committees/authoritarianism-and-democracy/
https://progressive.international/blueprint/cb7dbaf4-b106-4105-8bde-fdab4bfc2fe8-building-whole-process-peoples-democracy-in-china/en
https://zw.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zgjj/202112/t20211216_10470534.htm
https://ourworldindata.org/regimes-of-the-world-data
https://rajawali.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/07/final_policy_brief_7.6.2020.pdf
