虽然民主集中制的理论和原则由俄共（布）首创，但是民主集中制的丰富和发展是由中国共产党完成的。中国共产党民主集中制的理论创新是对近代中国现代化困境的回应。要挽救民族危亡并实现经济赶超需要一个强大的中央集权，但权力的集中很容易导向专制独裁而与民主相悖，如何现实民主与集中相统一是破解这一困境的关键。因此，与苏联共产党不同，中国共产党强调民族主义价值之下民主与集中具有同等地位，并从哲学高度阐释了两者辩证统一的关系。中国共产党将民主的精神内核从重自由转向重平等，找到了民主与集中统一的基础，超越了同时代中国知识分子关于民主与独裁的争论。在平等原则之上，中国共产党系统阐述了民主集中制的工作方法，这是对列宁提出的作为组织原则的民主集中制理论的补充。为了实现政党制度与国家制度的耦合，中国共产党还将民主集中制理论从政党内部拓展到政权建构层面，发展了列宁民主集中制理论。中国共产党民主集中制的制度创新是在新民主主义革命时期人民战争的实践中塑造的。人民战争以动员群众和依靠人民为胜利的根本条件，以党政军民协调配合为基本要求，以游击战为主要战略。因此，中国共产党的民主集中制更注重发展组织动员型民主和纵向民主，强调党的横向集中领导。这就促成了民主集中制中国化的制度创新：第一，“政治局—书记处”的权力结构和运行机制，保障了战争时期党中央的集体领导和民主决策；第二，三级纵向组织体制通过对中央局机构设置和权力安排的收放实现中央地方关系的灵活调节；第三，一元化横向集中领导体制发挥了党统领全局、协调各方的作用。民主集中制的制度创新锻造了中国共产党强大的政治动员能力、适应革新能力和战略规划能力，支撑起了中国共产党领导新民主主义革命胜利的核心优势。民主集中制中国化的历程不是一帆风顺的。党创立时期强调集中和纪律，大革命时期也存在着党内民主不足和集中失效的问题。土地革命时期党提出了民主与集中并重的发展目标，但因矫枉过正出现了“极端民主化”错误，在吸取经验教训的基础上，中国共产党对党内民主的内容作了取舍，对加强集中的手段进行了反思调整，最终经过抗日战争时期的发展在解放战争时期初步实现了高度民主与高度集中的结合。
Although democratic centralism was created by the Russian Communist (Bolshevik), its enrichment and development was done by the Communist Party of China, because the theory of democratic centralism was at a standstill, the principle of it was breached, in the Soviet Union after Lenin period.The Communist Party of China advocated the theory of democratic centralism in response to China’s modernization dilemma. In order to address the modernization dilemma and achieve economic catch-up, a strong centralization is needed, but the centralization of power easily lead to autocratic dictatorship and contrary to democracy. How to unify the reality of democracy and centralization is the key to solve this dilemma. Different from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of China emphasized the equal status of democracy and centralism under the value of nationalism, and explained the dialectical unity of the two concept from philosophical height. The Communist Party of China changed the spiritual core of democracy from freedom to equality to build the foundation of democracy and centralization. On this basis, the Chinese Communist Party systematically elaborated the working method of democratic centralism, which complemented Lenin's theory of democratic centralism as an organizing principle. In order to realize the coupling between the party system and the state system, the CPC also extended the theory of democratic centralism from the internal party to the level of political power construction.The people's war during the New Democratic Revolution shaped the Chinese characteristics of democratic centralism. The people's war rely on mobilizing the masses, requires the coordination between party, government, army and the people , and takes guerrilla warfare as its main strategy. Therefore the democratic centralism of the CPC paid more attention to the organization-mobilization democracy and vertical democracy, and emphasized the horizontal centralized leadership of the party, which promoted the institutional innovation of democratic centralism in China. Firstly, the power structure and operation mechanism of "Political Bureau -- Secretariat" ensured the collective leadership and democratic decision-making of the CPC Central Committee during the war. Secondly, the three-level vertical organizational system flexibly adjusted the relationship between the central and local party organizations through the adjustment of the institutional setup and power arrangement of the central bureau. Thirdly, The horizontal centralized leadership system enable the CPC to command the overall situation and coordinating all sides. These institutional innovation has forged the CPC's powerful ability of political mobilization, adaptation, innovation and strategic planning, which provided the guarantee of the victory of the CPC during the New Democratic Revolution.The process of the sinicization of democratic centralism was not plain sailing. During the founding period of the Party, the early leaders emphasized centralization and discipline, which resulted in the lack of democracy in the Party and the failure of central centralization during the Great Revolution. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the Party put forward the development goal of democracy and centralism, but it made the mistake of "extreme democratization" due to overcorrection. On the basis of absorbing experience and lessons, the CPC regulated the content of inner-party democracy and reflected on the measures to strengthen centralization. Finally, the combination of high democracy and high centralism was preliminarily realized during the War of Liberation.
