ABSTRACT
The issue of state power raises the question of how it should be used in theory, and how it has been used in reality. The problem is raised because it is widely acknowledged that power can be easily abused when it is not constrained by law, and is concentrated in the hands of a few, either as individuals or as the leaders of a ruling party. It is a concern because this power, with its claimed legitimacy, is not constrained as a principle, and is not checked or sanctioned by law when it is abused. In other words, the problem identified here is a power held by individuals who are unaccountable to the rule of law and the legitimacy of ordaining authority by virtue of one’s own power as a ruler. This problem of power concentration is not new. It was officially recognized by Chinese leaders such as Deng, who said: ‘First of all, it is not good to have an over-concentration of power. It hinders the practice of socialist democracy and of the Party’s democratic centralism … Overconcentration of power is liable to give rise to arbitrary rule by individuals at the expense of collective leadership, and it is an important cause of bureaucracy under the present circumstances’ (Deng 1981: 426).
