Abstract
This study argues that village elections and self-governance in rural China represent a deliberation of the reformers to solve crises in rural areas after the collapse of the People’s Commune system. This chapter aims to examine the roles and functions of national political elites in the process of village elections. In the first section, it tries to trace how the villagers’ self-government emerged, and why national political elites were willing to implement village election and replace the People’s Commune with this democratic vehicle. In the second section, this study attempts to explore how reform-oriented political elites won, through all their difficulties, to allow the Organic Law of villagers’ committee pass; this law is one of the important aspects of the elites’ crafting. In the following two sections, the roles of senior political elites are discussed respectively, particularly Peng Zhen, the officials at the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) and in particular Wang Zhenyao and his elite network. I then show how officials at the MCA have promoted village elections through building a sound macroenvironment, designing laws, rules and regulations, making institutional arrangements, and three cooperative projects, and the the conclusion.
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Notes
Refer to Giuseppe Did Palma, To Craft Democracies: an Essay on Democratic Transitions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990);
Robert D. Grey, Democratic Theory and Post-Communist Change (Prentice Hall, 1997);
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Deng Xiaoping, Selected Works from Deng Xiaoping, Volume 2 (Beijing: the People’s Press, 1984), pp. 144 and 146.
Amy B. Epstein, “Village Elections in China: Experimenting with Democracy,” in E. Bliney, ed., Crisis and Reform in China (Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 1997), p. 152.
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Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy,” World Politics, vol. 51 (April 1999), pp. 389, 394.
Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy,” World Politics, vol. 51 (April 1999), p. 411.
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Bai Yanhua described the process of the birth of the Organic Law. See Bai Yanhua, The Reform and Exploration of China’s Grassroots Power, Volume 1 (Beijing: China Society Press, 1995), pp. 282–309.
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“Swing man” is a figure in a key position at the right time that succeeds in helping to transform the state of affairs and to bring about a solution at a decisive moment in transition. See Geoffrey Pridham, The Dynamics of Democratization: A Comparative Approach (London, New York: Continuum, 2000), p. 142.
The question is why Marxist “fundamentalists” became “swing men” in village elections? Why did several party elders and particularly Peng Zhen champion the Organic Law in the face of widespread opposition? Some Scholars have offered some reasons. First, Peng Zhen’s personal experience in the elections of the Jin Cha Ji Border Region and the CR pushed him to recognize the importance of the rule of law and democracy, while those experiences were naturally important for Peng to support the implementation of village elections and self-governance. Regarding this point, see Pitman B. Potter, From Leninist Discipline to Socialist Legalism: Peng Zhen on Law and political Authority in the PRC, USC Seminar No. 10 of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, p. 14. Second, the first generation revolutionist of the CCP such as Mao Zedong had firm faith and thirst for the national independence, glory, and democracy. Peng Zhen had ideas and faith in legalization, democratization, the mass line of the CCP, and a real sense of the people’s being the master of their own country. Regarding this point, refer to the interview with Mr. Yan Minfu by He Baogang, Beijing of China, in July of 1998. Third, Peng Zhen took a commitment to village elections and self-governance for strengthening the existing political position of CCP in rural China. Regarding this point, see Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy,” World Politics, vol. 51 (April 1999), p. 392;
Li Lianjiang and Kevin J. O’Brien, “The Struggle over Village Elections,” in Merle Goldman and Roderick MacFarquhar, eds., The Paradox of China’s Post-Mao Reforms (Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 131;
Tyrene White, “Village Elections: Democracy from the Bottom up?,” Current History, vol. 97 (September 1998), p. 264;
Pitman B. Potter, From Leninist Discipline to Socialist Legalism: Peng Zhen on Law and political Authority in the PRC. USC Seminar No. 10 (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995), p. 16. Finally, as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Peng Zhen needed to increase his own power in Chinese politics. Regarding this point,
see Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy,” World Politics, vol. 51 (April 1999), p. 392;
Pitman B. Potter, From Leninist Discipline to Socialist Legalism: Peng Zhen on Law and political Authority in the PRC, USC Seminar No. 10 of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, p. 12.
Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democrcay,” World Politics, vol. 51 (April 1999), pp. 389, 393.
See Bai Yanhua, The Reform and Exploration of China’s Grassroots Power, Volume 1 (Beijing: China Society Press, 1995), pp. 282–309.
Li Lianjiang and Kevin J. O’Brien, “The Struggle over Village Elections,” in Merle Goldman and Roderick MacFarquhar, eds., The Paradox of China’s Post-Mao Reforms (Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 133.
Anne F. Thurston, Muddling toward Democracy: Political Changes in Grassroots China. United States Institute of Peace, Peaceworks 23, 1998, p. 13.
Paul C. Grove, “The Roles of Foreign Non-governmental Organizations in the Development and Promotion of Village Elections in China,” American Asian Review, vol. XVIII, no. 3 (Fall 2000), p. 111.
Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China. Institutional Tactics for Democracy,” World Politics, vol. 51, no. 3 (April 1999), p. 390.
Shi Tianjian, “Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy,” World Politics, vol. 51 (1999), pp. 385–412.
Jean C. Oi, “Economic Development, Stability and Democratic Village Self-governance,” in Maurice Brosseau, Suzanne Pepper, and Tsang Shu-ki, eds., China Review 1996 (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1996), p. 131.
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Geoffrey Pridham, The Dynamics of Democratization: a Comparative Approach (London, New York: Continuum, 2000), p. 93.
A. Lijphart, “The Southern European Examples of Democratization: Six Lessons for Latin America,” Government and Opposition, vol. 27 (Winter 1990), p. 72.
S. Huntington, “Political Development and Political Decay,” World Politics, vol. 18 (April 1965), p. 394.
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© 2005 Weixing Chen and Yang Zhong
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Lang, Y. (2005). Crafting Village Democracy in China: Roles and Strategies of National Political Elites. In: Leadership in a Changing China. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980397_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980397_6
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