Committee: United Nations Development Program
Topic: Improving democratic governance and democratic institutions
Country: China
Delegate: Frank Simali
School: Christian Brothers College
In the United Nations goal to promote peace, development, and human rights as
even stated in the UN charter to maintain international peace, improve the living
standards of citizens and promote universal human rights.1Democratic governance
is both a tool and a pillar to achieving this goal. As even if a country finds it’s self
in a state of social and economic stability, a government still has a paternalistic
role to uptake for its people, and the people themselves should have a say in who
they entrust to decide their fate and nurture them and the country to bring
prosperity. Democracy has played a vital role in the lives of civilizations from
transforming the world from power structures of monarchies, empires to bring
forth self-determination, and peaceful co-existence2. Currently, China’s leading
party the Communist party of China (CCP), has made an effort to enhance its
government institutions.
Corruption is understood as a driver of democratic decline and reducing public
trust in the ruling government and people hence become depressed in the society
due to inefficient judiciary systems3. China has evoked multiple Anti-corruption
campaigns that seek to address the issues of corruption and bribery within the
government and party ranks. In 2012, following the 18th Congress of the CCP , an
anti-corruption movement was decided under Xin Jinping, with the policy sacking
about 120 officials and a dozen high ranking military officials.4. Such policies are
done to strengthen governance and the peoples trust in it, so as to achieve some of
a governments paternalistic roles, and making these public institutes more liable
for the people.
To improve democratic governance, China has made efforts in “grass root
democratic processes that operate at local levels of governance and democratic
1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_United_Nations
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/04/importance-democracy
3
https://knowledgehub.transparency.org/helpdesk/contribution-of-anti-corruption-measures-to-democracypromotion
4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-corruption_campaign_under_Xi_Jinping
2
institutions, particularly through village elections. This was done through the
Organic Law of Villagers Committees of the Peoples’ Republic of China on
November 4 1998, which assured self-governance in villages in rural China to
create an ethically advanced region as well as supervision exercised by democratic
means,5 These processes allow people to be involved in crucial micro level
decisions, locally, by giving them involvement in selecting local leaders and
decision making in local village policies thus the delegation of China , sees it as fit
to implement such policies and committees to further push the notion of
democracy.
The delegation of China believes there should be improvement of democratic
institutions via investing in education and training programs to develop skilled
professionals who will have the competence and capacity to fulfil their future
government roles that follow the principles of democracy and competence in
response
5
http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/207279.htm