Peasants’ Interests in Political Participation and the Relationship Between Authority and Participation

Abstract

An analysis of the non-institutional participation of peasants shows that political participation of the general public could provide an important approach to better resolving the social, economic, and political conflicts arising from the modernization process. During the transformation period, encouraging the orderly participation in political affairs does contribute to the settlement of conflicts and problems. However, this may sometimes lead to an opposite extreme. In fact, public political participation plays a limited role in resolving the conflicts. There are many approaches and tools for resolving social, economic, and political conflicts, as many factors affect these conflicts. An analysis of the two forms of non-institutional participation—induced participation and mandatory participation—indicates that a high level of unity exists between the two well-known statements made, respectively, by the first generation and the third generation of the CPC leadership, the former being “The fundamental issue is to educate rural citizens,” and the latter being “The major issue is to educate government cadres.”