This paper emphasizes that the traditional emperor-bureaucratic system continues today in the form of a ‘party state bureaucracy’ by the Communist Party of China. The Communist Party of China, the only ruling power different from the Western party, is a bureaucratic organization. Modern China, which has been reborn as a nation-state after the dissolution of the empire, is a product of the old system that inherited the traditional system, not a state in the modern sense that aims for Western character and values. In addition, China‘s modernization was a ’path-dependent’ process that inherited its historical path into the system based on its own pre-modern model. Therefore, the transition of the Chinese system is proceeding in the form of ‘bureaucratization’ rather than the transition process to a democratic system by modernization theory. As can be seen in modern Chinese history, the debate over the dysfunction of the bureaucratic system itself implies the possibility of expanding into a power struggle.

본 논문은 중국 정치체제의 특성과 관련하여 전통적인 황제-관료체제가 오늘날 중 국공산당에 의한 ‘당국가 관료체제’ 형태로 지속되고 있음을 강조한다. 제국의 해체 와 국민국가로 재탄생한 현대 중국은 서구적 성격과 가치를 지향하는 근대국가가 아 닌 전통 체제를 계승한 ‘구체제’의 산물이며, 중국의 근대화는 자신의 역사적 경로를 체제 내로 계승하는 ‘경로의존적’ 과정이었다. 따라서 중국 체제의 전환은 근대화론 에 의한 민주주의 체제로의 전환 과정이 아닌 ‘관료제화’ 형태로 진행되고 있다.