Ma Yide

　　Law School, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law

　　Abstract:The rule of law in China should be advanced under a systems framework. The systems framework on which the Chinese rule of law relies is shaped by the socialist democratic system. Socialist consultative democracy, which responds to the core themes of the determinant of socialism, Party leadership, the democratic tradition of New China and native resources for constructing the rule of law, is an important resource for constructing the rule of law in China. In a constitutional system of “ruling Party—political power—the people” that takes the sovereignty of the people as the logic of its starting point, consultative democracy plays the role of functional coupling. Popular sovereignty gains political legitimacy on the basis of multi- party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, thus translating the will of the ruling Party into the will of the state. Consultative democracy constitutes an essential process in national decision-making, affording a basis for the construction of the inherent logical sequence of “ruling Party—Consultative Conference—People’s Congress.” The democratic supervision exercised by the Consultative Conference is an extension of political consultation; from it unfolds the systems framework of the rule of law in China.

　　Keywords: consultative democracy, constitutional system, construction of the rule of law in China, People’s Congress system, People’s Political Consultative Conference system