Dictatorship Should Be Continued, Democracy Should Be Enlarged

On July 21, 1956, Zhou Enlai made an important point in his speech at the First Congress of the CPC in Shanghai. This was an important speech made at a time when the struggle to purge the counter-revolution had won a major victory and the socialist transformation of the private ownership of the means of production was about to be completed.

The speech made it clear that our people's democratic dictatorship should now be continued and democracy enlarged. Domestically speaking, the remaining counter-revolutionary elements have not been completely purged, and from abroad, imperialism is still hostile to China, therefore people’s democratic dictatorship should continue. But after people’s democratic dictatorship became more consolidated and the working class more powerful, democracy in China should be expanded, not reduced. This was partly a matter of circumstance and partly a lesson learned from the whole history of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The people's democratic dictatorship aimed at building socialism and eliminating the exploiting class.

The speech stressed the importance of expanding democracy, pointing out that although the power of the dictatorship is based on democracy, this power is quite centralized, and if it is not handled properly, it is easy to neglect democracy, and the historical experience of the Soviet Union can be learned from it. That is why we must always be vigilant and pay constant attention to the expansion of democracy, which is of more essential significance. To solve this problem, it must be found some ways to expand democracy in the national system.

For example, while the people's congresses do not yet have the conditions for direct and secret elections, they can expand democracy in other ways, including: making the people's deputies in constant contact with the people; publishing the speeches of the people's deputies, including those criticizing the work of the government; and further involving the people's deputies in the inspection of the work of the government, all the way to the inspection of public security and judicial work. In order to make the system of people's democratic dictatorship better, bureaucratism must always be opposed.

This speech enriched and developed Mao Zedong's theory of people's democratic dictatorship.