Elections earlier this month (December 2012) in the USA and China give us a chance to reflect on how each country conducts its own political process to arrive at regime changes.

Both sides honor the most sacred form of Democracy - Term Limits; 8 years in the USA and 10 years in China (China also imposes age limits for high level candidates); another similarity is in keeping top positions only for Party Insiders; only one party in China but two in the USA.

Yet the election process is quite different.

Here in America, the general election requires each person to vote for all the top positions such as President, Senators and House representatives, while China employs multiple levels of election process to gradually arrive at the top.

Starting from China’s total population of 1.3 billion people, the political power is first assigned to the 8.2 million Communist Party members. From these local members 2270 delegates are elected to attend the National Convention in Beijing, where their most important task is to elect 205 Central Committee Members who will become the operating base for the new government. It is interesting to note that at these levels of elections the voting is quite open and delegates are motivated to pick the persons who are more knowledgeable and capable to participate in a higher decision process. This is in contrast to what’s here in the USA where party delegates are expected to stick to voter preferred political agendas. 

From the 205 Central Committee members, 25 Standing Committee members will be selected to form the core structure of the Zhongnanhai power. The final 7 politburo members chosen from these 25 form the so-called collective leadership designed to balance out the Party Secretary who is now President of the Chinese Government. All these selections are conducted behind closed doors and the announced election result is viewed as symbolic. This is why China is often criticized for its one party authoritarian rule.

However, looking from a different but positive angle, the 205 Central Committee member team may be viewed as the result of the open and fair voting at the lower levels. It you look over the roster of these members, nearly all of them are seasoned provincial chiefs or minister level government officials, all of whom have impeccable records. They are expected to work as a team for the benefit of the country, and at the same time provide some checks and balances within this collective leadership.

There you have it. The Chinese Democracy is designed to elect a team with consolidated power to move the nation forward, while in the US we try to keep the power split at the Capital.

Which way is better?