Law Commons^™

Government Under Party, Party Under Constitution: On The Construction Of Chinese State-Party Rule Of Law Constitutionalism, Larry Cata Backer

Larry Cata Backer

Since the establishment of the Soviet Union, constitutional theory has tended to look suspiciously at the constitutionalization of Marxist Leninist state apparatus under the control of a single party in power. These judgments have formed the basis of analysis of Chinese constitutionalism as well. But are these criticisms inevitably correct in general, and wholly applicable in the post 1989 Chinese context after the structural reforms of Deng Xiaoping and his successors? This paper explores those questions, developing a constitutional theory for states organized on a state-party model. The thesis of the article is this: Chinese constitutionalism presents a coherent and …