Party leadership and legislating: party documents through a party–state relationship lens

Snape, H. (2023) Party leadership and legislating: party documents through a party–state relationship lens. Chinese Law and Government, (doi: 10.1080/00094609.2022.2132763) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

For over a decade, the Chinese Communist Party has been building its rules into a coherent ‘intra-party regulatory system’ with implications for the way the Party runs itself and ‘leads’ its state. This article examines the system-building project through the lens of the Party’s relationship with its state. It draws on a comparative analysis of the different iterations of the Party Charter since the Party became ‘governing party,’ and of pre- and post-19th Party Congress versions of the foundational documents of the intra-party regulatory system. It argues that since the 19th Congress Party Charter transformed the Party’s longstanding articulation of its own identity, redefining ‘Party leadership,’ the intra-party regulatory system has begun to reflect this change. ‘Party leadership’ is by nature relational—it cannot be defined or practiced in a vacuum—hence the Party’s transformed notion of ‘Party leadership’ entails a reconfigured Party–state relationship. Examined in this context, the Party’s project of ‘intra-party regulatory system’ building appears to be reconfiguring the relationship between Party documents and state laws and policies.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Snape, Dr Holly
• Authors: Snape, H.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Chinese Law and Government
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 0009-4609
• ISSN (Online): 1944-7051
• Published Online: 17 January 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis
• First Published: First published in Chinese Law and Government 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher