One Brand of Workplace Democracy: The Workers' Congress in the Chinese Enterprise

Abstract

The workplace institution of the 'workers' congress' has a long but staggering history in the People's Republic of China. Recently, the system has been revived in an enhanced form in order to give worker participation in enterprise management a new vitality. The congress is intended to buttress the practice of self-management in the factory as the Chinese economy moves closer towards the Yugoslav model of 'market socialism'. But it is questionable how much the party has abandoned its hegemonic control under the present attempt to superimpose the workers congress on the pre-existent authority structure of 'parly leadership and director accountability'. And other problems may be envisaged. This paper makes an exploratory enquiry into these problems and suggests that they may be compared to those that constrain the operation of the 'works council' formula in eastern Europe.