National Social Consultative Conference (Menghe)
The National Social Consultative Conference (Gomun: 全國社會協議會, Sinmun: 전국 사회 협의회, pr. Jŏnguk Sahoe Hyŏbyihoe), also translated "All-Nation Social Consultative Conference" and usually abbreviated NSCC in official English translations, is a political advisory body in the Socialist Republic of Menghe. It forms the head of a chain of Social Consultative Conferences, which also exist at the Provincial and Prefectural levels.
In place of political parties, representatives to the NSCC are broken up into fourteen "social backgrounds," each corresponding to a given occupation or field. Voters cast ballots by identifying the social background that they most identify with, and seats are filled through proportional representation with umbrella interest organizations serving as parties. This gives the body a distinctively corporatist character, with proportional elected representatives of labor, business, military, and other social interests.
In contrast to the National Assembly, the NSCC is not a formal legislative body and lacks the power to draft or pass laws. It also convenes just once a year, for three weeks in July, to hear reports drafted by the Provincial SCCs and compile a non-binding advisory resolution which is then passed on to the National Assembly and Supreme Council. In light of this limited role, some scholars have referred to the NSCC as a "quasi-legislature."
History
The first round of so-called "Social Consultative Conferences" were held in May 1993, after Choe Sŭng-min issued a proclamation encouraging prefecture-level governments to organize "Five-Class meetings" with representatives for laborers, farmers, professionals, petty entrepreneurs, and state-owned enterprises. The vaguely worded document did not lay down any guidelines about the selection of representatives, nor did it provide for a national-level parent body.
The SCCs were legally formalized in February of 1998, when the National Assembly drafted the Foundational Law on Social Consultative Conferences and enshrined this document in the 1989 Constitution by amendment. In addition to converting the Prefectural SCCs into formal government bodies, the Fundamental Law on SCCs established Provincial and National Social Consultative Conferences, the first sessions of which would convene that summer through special indirect elections. Subsequent sessions of the NSCC and its lower-level counterparts were filled through the election process spelled out in the Fundamental Law.
Initially, the NSCC was a "window dressing institution" with little policy influence. Its first few sessions, which took place during the Disciplined Society Campaign, heaped praise on Choe Sŭng-min and expressed a unified commitment to economic cooperation, even as the 1999 Menghean financial crisis shook the economy. Over time, however, the NSCC grew more assertive in raising sensitive policy issues, such as environmental protection, labor rights, and gender equality. The 29th National Social Consultative Conference, held in July 2017, called for the relaxation or abolition of the Household Registration System, a contentious issue in light of Menghe's large population of internal migrants.
Delegates
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Most delegates to the NSCC are elected indirectly by the Provincial Social Consultative Conferences. The main exceptions are the Army and Navy delegations, which are appointed by the Ministry of Defense; the Socialist Party delegation, which is elected by the Central Committee of the Socialist Party; and the Cultural Arts and Academia delegations, which are elected by their relevant associations under the Ministry of Culture.
In all election areas, the Consultative Election Management Board screens candidates to ensure that all are loyal to the MSP's rule and will not call for radical change. Similar screening takes place at lower levels. Even after selection, the NSCC Personnel Board can suspend delegates at any time for "desabilizing remarks." Among delegates who support the Party, however, the selection process is relatively competitive, with an average of three candidates considered for each position in the Provincial SCCs. Since 2002, NSCC delegates have not been required to hold membership in the Menghe Socialist Party, though over 60% do.
Each NSCC delegate is assigned to a "social background," and is expected to advocate for the problems of citizens sharing a similar background, though not at the expense of cooperation with others. Geographic representation is treated only as a secondary concern. This corporatist structure formally recognizes negotiation based on social group. In the 19th National Social Consultative Conference, which convened in November 2017, there were nineteen recognized "social backgrounds:"
| Social background | Number of delegates | Percent of total |
|---|---|---|
| Appointed groups | 527 | 18.1% |
| Socialist Party leading cadres | 207 | 7.1% |
| Army officers and personnel | 118 | 4.0% |
| Navy officers and personnel | 96 | 3.3% |
| Scientists and academics | 64 | 2.1% |
| Artists, Poets, Musicians, and Cultural Figures | 42 | 1.4% |
| Elected Groups | 2,391 | 81.9% |
| Employers and large entrepreneurs | 211 | 7.2% |
| Self-employed and small business owners | 362 | 12.4% |
| Police and security personnel | 216 | 7.4% |
| Doctors and medical staff | 53 | 1.8% |
| Clerks and office workers | 171 | 5.9% |
| Skilled workers and professionals | 97 | 3.3% |
| Street-level civil servants | 86 | 2.9% |
| Women outside the labor force | 183 | 6.3% |
| Pensioners and retirees | 75 | 2.6% |
| Industrial laborers and construction workers | 402 | 13.8% |
| Private-sector service employees | 124 | 4.2% |
| Farmers and pastoralists | 298 | 10.2% |
| Fishermen and sailors | 68 | 2.3% |
| Miners, oilmen, and resource workers | 45 | 1.5% |
| Total | 2,918 | 100% |
The sizes of the different delegations are set by law, but are revised annually. They are not proportional to that occupation's share of employment, with the result that upper- and middle-class occupations are over-represented at the cost of their working-class counterparts. Nevertheless, workers and farmers are better-represented in the NSCC than in the National Assembly, where all representatives are full-time government employees.
In order to maintain their workforce connections, delegates are expected to remain in their occupations while the NSCC is not in session, and are only paid with an annual stipend for travel expenses. Since 2014, they have been permitted to partner with government assistants to handle requests from constituents, but they are not allowed to hire full-time staff of their own.
Lower levels
The structure of the NSCC is replicated, with modifications, at each administrative level of Menghe.
At the Village and County levels, Social Consultative Conference representatives are popularly elected; each voter can list as many names as there are seats in the district, generally 3-5. Candidates are nominated by the general population if they can gather twenty signatures, but they must be approved by the local Electoral Commission to approve on the ballot, a process which screens out potential "troublemakers."
After elections are over, village SCCs convene once a month, and county SCCs convene four times a year. At these levels, there are no formal requirements on class background, though Electoral Commissions may adjust the screening process to ensure an adequate distribution of class voices. Village and County Consultative Conference meetings sometimes discuss labor and economic issues, especially during development initiatives or periods of labor unrest, but for the most part agenda-setting stresses issues of interest to the whole community.
At the Prefectural and Provincial levels, most representatives are indirectly elected by the Consultative Conferences at the next level down. Seats may also be reserved for representatives of local trade-union branches or "prominent cultural persons." These conferences set more stringent guidelines on class representation, with loose quotas for each occupation group. Meeting once a year (twice a year in some Metropolitan Cities), they discuss proposals submitted by Village and County governments, and pass on reports to the next level up.
The schedules of these different conferences are timed to allow recommendation documents to more easily flow upward: the NSCC convenes in early November, Prefectural and Provincial SCCs in late October, and County SCCs in September, with each discussing selected documents from the earlier level. This delay is also necessary because all representatives selected through indirect election concurrently sit on lower-level conferences. The only exception are village SCCs, which meet year-round every month and can convene on an emergency basis.
Role
In spite of the NSCC's limited formal power, recent scholarship has identified it as an important institution of "consultative authoritarianism." The bottom-up structure of the SCC system and the requirement of concurrent seats for representatives enable a steady upward flow of information on the public's policy preferences, which are then passed on to national officials with actual policymaking power. In this sense, it serves as an important feedback mechanism, allowing the government to adjust non-critical policies in ways that maximize popular support and monitor the implementation of central policy initiatives.
Additionally, the corporatist structure of the NSCC co-opts emerging economic elites by giving them a disproportionately large voice in the system, while also maintaining a protected voice for the lower classes. While local conferences sometimes generate heated arguments over labor rights, national and provincial conferences are carefully regulated to present an image of inter-class harmony, while still alerting government officials to cases of labor unrest and possible solutions.
Nevertheless, the NSCC and its local counterparts cannot be considered democratic institutions, as the selection of representatives and the setting of the agenda are overseen by Socialist Party organs. Most SCC debates deal with "everyday" issues such as law enforcement, environmental protection, and development projects; "critical" issues such as freedom of speech and multi-party competition are seldom discussed in Village and County conferences, and almost never passed all the way up to the national level. The SCCs also lack the ability to pass laws, giving unelected Party and Government officials full discretion over how, and whether, their non-binding resolutions should be implemented. In this sense, at most they represent a form of "bounded representation," designed to support the regime's popularity without substantively changing its authoritarian nature.