Political Participation

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with an outstanding characteristic of post-liberation Chinese politics, political participation. It will focus on the objectives of political participation and the opportunities for fulfilling them. An attempt will be made to set forth what is meant by political participation in the Chinese context, to describe its purposes and functions, and to outline the forms it has taken since 1976. Particular attention will be paid to non-elite participation in the form of elections for people’s congresses at the county level and the role of the congresses. While the constraints that are peculiar to the Chinese political system must be taken into account, in particular the dominant role of the Chinese Communist Party, it is nonetheless true that the Chinese have made efforts to encourage popular political participation since 1949, earlier through the mass campaigns of the Maoist era, later through the institutions of law and politics re-established by Deng Xiaoping.