Abstract
Since 1978 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been pursuing a reform and open-door policy. The movement of restructuring heralded by reforms in the countryside brings China into a historical transformational period of economic development and social changes. What changes, then, have taken place in the socio-economic structure of rural China’s grassroots units? What are the structures and functions of political organizations at the basic level in the countryside? What is the situation of peasants’ political participation at the basic level? To what extent will all this influence contemporary China’s political stability and development?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and references
Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968).
See Jiang Liu et al. (eds), An Analysis and Prediction of Chinese Social Situation in 1995–1996 (Beijing: The China Social Science Society Press, 1996), p. 78.
See Xu Yong, ‘From Able Man Management to Rule by Law: the Transformation of Management Model in Villages’, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Chinese Political Science Society, Wuhan, May 1995.
Zhang Houan and Xu Yong, Political Stability and Development in Chinese Villages (Wuhan University Press, 1995), p. 956.
See Qian Hang, ‘Several Questions About Clan and Kinship Research in Contemporary Chinese Villages’, Village Economy and Society (Nongcun Jingji Yu Shehui), no. 5, 1993, pp. 9–14.
See Cheng Tongshun, ‘Contemporary Chinese Peasants’ Political Participation’, Jianghai Xuehan (Nanjing), no. 1, 1995, pp. 37–9.
Typical is the case of Yu Zuomin of Daqiuzhuang, Jinghai county, Tianjin. Yu was the Party secretary of Daqiuzhuang. He retaliated and tortured those peasants who dared to reveal his corrupt activities to higher-level authorities. Some were even beaten to death. See Yu Hongfeng, The Secret Story of China’s Prosperous Village Daqiuzhuang (Beijing: Police Officers Education Press, 1993).
See Lianjiang Li and Kevin J. O’Brien, ‘Villagers and Popular Resistance in Contemporary China’, Modern China, vol. 22, no. 1 (January 1996), pp. 28–61.
He Pin, Post-Deng Xiaoping China (Canada: Mingjing, 1994), pp. 474–5.
Xiao Tangbiao, ‘The Developing Clan Organizations and their Impact on Social and Political Stability in Chinese Villages,’ in Socialist Studies (Shehui zhuyi Yanjiu), edited by Centre of Village Studies, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 1995, pp. 91–3.
Gabriel A. Almond and Bingham Powel Jr., Comparative Politics: System, Process, and Policy (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978).
Min Qi, Chinese Political Culture (Zhongguo zhengzhi wenhua) (Kunming-Yunan People’s Press, 1989), p. 233.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Herbert S. Yee and Wang Jinhong
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yee, H.S., Jinhong, W. (1999). Grassroots Political Participation in Rural China. In: Teather, D.C.B., Yee, H.S., Campling, J. (eds) China in Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983829_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983829_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-73134-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-333-98382-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)