Rural Democracy in China (East Asian Institute Contemporary China, 24)

Why does the Chinese government allow village elections? What implications do these grassroots level popular elections have for the democratization of China? By tracing the history of village level governance reform, this study tackles these questions. According to the author, there are two roots to the emergence of village elections in China: structural changes in the village economy and bureaucratic politics. The author also identifies old guard Peng Zhen, himself victimized by lawlessness during the Cultural Revolution, and officials in the Ministry of Civil Affairs - an otherwise powerless bureaucracy that has jurisdiction over rural governance issues - as the driving force behind the reform in the government. The author believes that village elections have enormous political implications for China: they represent yet another aspect of "creeping democratization" of the country. Resistance from the status quo interests will be stiff, but democracy has a chance in the alliance between the disgruntled population and reform-minded elites in the leadership.