The unique conception of democracy embodied in the Chinese path to modernization not only provides crucial intellectual impetus for advancing Chinese modernization comprehensively, but also represents a major innovation and development to the theory of modernization in the world. Western modernization has given rise to a liberal conception of democracy characterized mainly by individualism, checks and balances, and electoral democracy. It essentially serves to maintain capital expansion and the capitalist system, with its roots in rationalism and linear historical determinism. The unique conception of democracy embodied in the Chinese path to modernization encompasses a view of democratic values that puts the people first, a view of democratic institutions featuring the people being the masters of the country, a view of democratic processes based on wholeprocess peoples democracy, and a view of democratic evaluation that prioritizes extensive, genuine, and effective governance. Therefore, the global significance of the unique conception of democracy embodied in the Chinese path to modernization is demonstrated in the following aspects. First, adhering to the materialist conception of history, it transcends Westmonopolized democracy and expands the autonomy and diversity of democratic development worldwide. Second, by upholding the mass view of history, it deconstructs the Western theory of elite creation of democracy and blazes a new path of advancing modernization through peoples democracy. Third, by persisting in the “Two Integrations”, it resolves the challenge of political order in the development of modernization and creates a new model that organically unifies democratic governance and national unity.
