Politics of China
China practices a form of democracy that it calls socialist consultative democracy. Socialist Consultative Democracy is the form of democracy that exists in the People's Republic of China, though at least one source says that this form of democracy was created by the Communist Party of China. According to an article on Qiushi Journal, "Consultative democracy was created by the CPC and the Chinese people as a form of socialist democracy. In this sense, consultative democracy represents the grand product of our efforts to enrich and develop Marxist theories on democracy. Socialist consultative democracy exhibits distinctive features as well as unique advantages. Not only representing a commitment to socialism, it carries forward China’s fine political and cultural traditions. Not only representing a commitment to the organizational principles and leadership mode of democratic centralism, it also affirms the role of the general public in democracy. Not only representing a commitment to the leadership of the CPC, it also gives play to the role of all political parties and organizations as well as people of all ethnic groups and all sectors of society".
Sociology in China
Sociology became a subject of academic interest in China in 1920s, and in 1947 sociologist Fei Xiaotong published a book, "From the Soil", that sought to establish a framework for detailing Chinese society and its moral and ethics. A few years later, in 1949, the Communist party established control of Mainland China, and by 1952 sociology was banned by communist authorities as a bourgeois pseudoscience, similar to what happened in other communist countries (see for example history of sociology in the Soviet Union or sociology in People's Republic of Poland). Existing sociologists were discriminated against during the Cultural Revolution and their works restricted. In 1979, Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping noted the need for more studies of the Chinese society and supported the reestablishment of the discipline. That year, in March, Chinese Sociological Association (CSA) was reestablished. Since then, sociology has been widely accepted as a useful tool for the state, and sociology graduates have often been employed in government institutions. Reestablishment of the field was also aided by the growing cooperation between Chinese and American sociologists.