Sociopolitical attitudes of the masses and leaders in the Chinese village: Attitude congruence and constraint

Journal of Contemporary China

Volumn 14, Issue 44, 2005, Pages 445-464

  Chen, Jie ^a  

^a OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

RURAL POLITICS; RURAL SOCIETY;

ASIA; CHINA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; FAR EAST; WORLD;

EID: 22144481691     PISSN: 10670564     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10670560500115333     Document Type: Review

References (128)

1. See, for example, Christopher H. Achen, 'Measuring representation', American Journal of Political Science 22, (August 1978), pp. 477-510;
2. Russell J. Dalton, 'Political parties and political representation: party supporters and party elites in nine nations', Comparative Political Studies 18, (October 1985), pp. 267-299;
3. Margaret G. Hermann, 'Ingredients of leadership', in Margaret G. Hermann, ed., Political Psychology (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1986);
4. Philip E. Converse and Roy Pierce, Political Representation in France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986);
5. M. Kent Jennings, 'Ideological thinking among mass publics and political elites', Public Opinion Quarterly 56, (Winter 1992), pp. 419-441;
6. John D. Huber and G. Bingham Powell, Jr, 'Congruence between citizens and policymakers in two visions of liberal democracy', World Politics 46, (April 1994), pp. 291-325;
7. Arthur H. Miller, Vicki L. Hesli and William M. Reisinger, 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine', Public Opinion Quarterly 59, (Spring 1995), pp. 1-40;
8. Melanie Manion, 'The electoral connection in the Chinese countryside', American Political Science Review 90, (December 1996), pp. 736-748;
9. William M. Reisinger, Andrei Yu Melville, Arthur H. Miller and Vicki L. Hesli, 'Mass and elite political outlooks in post Soviet Russia: how congruent?', Political Research Quarterly 49, (March 1996), pp. 77-101;
10. Arthur H. Miller, Vicki L. Hesh and William M. Reisinger, 'Conceptions of democracy among mass and elite in post-Soviet societies', British Journal of Political Science 27, (1997), pp. 157-190;
11. Jie Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations in urban China', Public Opinion Quarterly 63, (Summer 1999), pp. 193-219.
12. For example, Converse and Pierce, Political Representation in France;
13. Hermann, Political Psychology;
14. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems';
15. Manion, 'The electoral connection'.
16. Manion, 'The electoral connection', p. 736.
17. Converse and Pierce, Political Representation in France, p. 221.
18. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems', p. 30.
19. For example, Jennings, 'Ideological thinking';
20. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems';
21. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
22. Jennings, 'Ideological thinking', p. 421.
23. Although most of the earlier studies refer to 'elites' as leaders at the national level, the arguments about the nature and implications of elite-mass relationships in these studies are considered applicable to the analysis of such relationships at the local level. For example, Manion has used the theory of attitude congruence to examine the difference and similarity between village cadres and ordinary villagers in their attitudes in the Chinese countryside, and subsequently to shed light on the quality of representation by the cadres. See, Manion, 'The electoral connection'. Chen has applied both theories of attitude congruence and constraint to his study of the relationships between ordinary citizens and local cadres in Beijing. See, Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
24. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), there were 801,000 VCs in 1999; see Ministry of Civil Affairs, 'The state of civil affairs in 1999', http://www.mca.gov.cn/statistics/99tjgb.html (accessed on 5 February 2002). Since there were about 930,000 villages then, the figure (801,000) from the MCA's statistics should constitute 86% of all the Chinese villages, which had VCs;
25. see Robert A. Pastor and Qingshan Tan, 'The meaning of China's village elections', The China Quarterly 162, (2000), p. 500. A nationwide survey conducted by an American-based China scholar in 1993 revealed that a low 75.1% or a high 82.2% of the sampled villages had VCs that had resulted from village elections;
26. see Tianjian Shi, 'Economic development and village elections in rural China', Journal of Contemporary China 8, (1999), p. 434. As Kevin O'Brien and Lianjiang Li suggest, however, there has been no consensus among China observers about how many of these VCs are elected democratically, semi-democratically, or at least according to the guidelines issued by the MCA;
27. see Kevin J. O'Brien and Lianjiang Li, 'Accommodating "democracy" in a one-party state: introducing village elections in China', The China Quarterly 162, (June 2000), pp. 484-486.
28. See Kevin J. O'Brien and Lianjiang Li, 'The politics of lodging complaints in rural China', The China Quarterly 143, (September 1995), pp. 757-783;
29. Lianjiang Li and Kevin J. O'Brien, 'Villagers and popular resistance in contemporary China', Modern China 22, (January 1996), pp. 28-61;
30. Kevin J. O'Brien and Lianjiang Li, 'Selective polity implementation in rural China', Comparative Politics, (January 1999), pp. 167-186;
31. Jean C. Oi, 'Two decades of rural reform in China: an overview and assessment', The China Quarterly, (September 1999), pp. 616-628;
32. Thomas P. Bernstein, 'Instability in rural China', in David Shambaugh, ed., Is China Unstable? Assessing the Factors (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2000);
33. Thomas P. Bernstein and Xiaobo Lu, 'Taxation without representation: peasants, the central and the local states in reform China', The China Quarterly 163, (December 2000), pp. 742-763. For example, one ofthe worst riots in the rural areas occurred in Renshou County, Sichuan Province, in 1993. Angered by excessive taxes and fees and arbitrary regulations, more than 10,000 peasants in Renshou county ran riot over several days, beating officials, blocking traffic, destroying property, burning vehicles and holding a police officer hostage for hours;
34. see Bernstein, 'Instability in rural China'.
35. O'Brien and Li, 'Selective polity implementation', p. 167.
36. For example, O'Brien and Li, 'The politics of lodging complaints';
37. Kevin J. O'Brien, 'Villagers, elections, and citizenship in contemporary China', Modern China 27, (October 2001), pp. 407-435.
38. While Manion's study deals with opinion of the state role in economic development, the research by Chhibber and Eldersveld focuses on attitudes toward economic reform. See Manion, 'The electoral connection';
39. Pradeep Chhibber and Samuel Eldersveld, 'Local elites and popular support for economic reform in China and India', Comparative Political Studies 33, (April 2000), pp. 350-373.
40. Among the 128 VC cadres, 46 are VC chairmen or vice chairmen and 82 are VC members. Of the 46 chairmen, 34 are also Party secretaries.
41. Miller, Hesli and Reisinger have also used a similar sampling strategy to compare the attitudes of the entire sets of masses and elites in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine. See Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems'.
42. For example, Converse, Converse and Pierce, and Jennings essentially included all the items in their surveys of the masses and elites, and grouped these items into subset, on the basis of face validity. See Philip E. Converse, 'The nature of belief systems in mass publics', in David E. Apter, ed., Ideology and Discontent (New York: Free Press, 1964);
43. Converse and Pierce, Political Representation in France;
44. Jennings, 'Ideological thinking'.
45. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems', p. 8.
46. See Donald Granberg and Soren Holmberg, The Political System Matters: Social Psychology and Voting Behavior in Sweden and the United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988);
47. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems';
48. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
49. See, for example, O'Brien and Li, 'The politics of lodging complaints';
50. Li and O'Brien, 'Villagers and popular resistance';
51. Bernstein, 'Instability in rural China';
52. Tongshun Cheng, Dangdai zhongguo nongcun zhengzhi fazhan yanjiu [An Analysis of Political Development in the Contemporary Chinese Villages] (Tianjin, China: Tianjin People's Press, 2000), ch. 2;
53. Zhang Huan, Xu Yong and Xiang Jiquan, Zhongguo nongcun cunji zhili: 22 ge cun de diaocha yu bijiao [Village Government in Rural China: Studies and Comparison of 22 Villages] (Wuhan, China: Normal University of Central China Press, 2000).
54. Edward N. Muller and Thomas O. Jukam, 'On the meaning of political support', American Political Science Review 77, (1977), p. 1566.
55. For example, David Easton, 'A re-assessment of the concept of political support', British Journal of Political Science 5, (October 1975), pp. 435-457;
56. Arthur H. Miller, 'In search of regime legitimacy', in Arthur H. Miller, William M. Reisinger and Vicki L. Hesli, eds, Public Opinion and Regime Change: The New Politics of Post-Soviet Societies (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993).
57. Unlike this study that compares both internal and external political efficacies among villagers and cadres, Lianjiang Li's recent study examines only external political efficacy within villagers. See Lianjiang Li, 'The empowering effect of village elections in China', Asian Survey 43(4), (2003), pp. 648-662.
58. Angus Campbell, Gerald Gurin and Warren Miller, The Voter Decides (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson, 1954), p. 187.
59. Allan Komberg and Harold D. Clarke, Citizens and Community: Political Support in a Representative Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 136.
60. For example, M. Kent Jennings, 'Political participation in the Chinese countryside', American Political Science Review 91, (June 1997), pp. 361-372.
61. Chen, 'Popular support for village self-government'.
62. See, especially, O'Brien and Li, 'Selective polity implementation'.
63. Jennings, 'Political participation';
64. O'Brien and Li, 'Selective polity implementation';
65. Zhang et al., Village Government.
66. O'Brien and Li, 'Selective polity implementation', p. 177.
67. Not until 1999 did Jiangsu Provincial Government begin to step up its push for cha e xuanju at the village level.
68. See, for example, Pastor and Tan, 'The meaning of China's village elections'.
69. For example, Zhang et al., Village Government.
70. See, also, Zhong Yang and Jie Chen, 'To vote or not to vote: an analysis of peasants' participation in Chinese village elections', Comparative Political Studies 27, (August 2002), pp. 686-712.
71. For example, Jean C. Oi, 'The role of the local state in China's transitional economy', China Quarterly 144, (1995), pp. 1132-1149;
72. Jean C. Oi, 'The evolution of local state corporatism', in Andrew G. Walder, ed., Zouping in Transition: The Process of Reform in Rural North China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998);
73. O'Brien and Li, 'Selective policy implementation';
74. Chhibber and Eldersveld, 'Local elites and popular support'.
75. Jennings, 'Political participation', p. 367.
76. See, especially, Oi, 'The evolution of local state corporatism';
77. Jean C. Oi, Rural China Takes Off: Institutional Foundations of Economic Reform (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
78. For example, O'Brien and Li, 'Selective policy implementation';
79. Oi, Rural China Takes Off.
80. Jennings, 'Political participation', p. 367.
81. Each index was then resealed to the range of 1-5. The same method has been also used in the studies by Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems', p. 4,
82. and Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations', p. 202.
83. See Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
84. For more details of her argument, see Oi, 'The role of the local state';
85. Oi, Rural China Takes Off. According to Oi, the local state corporatism refers to the political context of post-Mao reforms in rural China, in which 'the central state set the reform process in motion and provided localities with the incentives and the leeway to develop economically, but local government has been the activist state that has determined the outcome of reform';
86. see Oi, Rural China Takes Off, p. 12.
87. O'Brien, 'Villagers, elections, and citizenship', p. 408.
88. See Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
89. For example, Converse, 'The nature of belief systems';
90. Converse and Pierce, Political Representation in France;
91. Granberg and Holmberg, The Political System Matters;
92. Jennings, 'Ideological thinking';
93. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems'.
94. For example, Converse and Pierce, Political Representation in France;
95. Granberg and Holmberg, The Political System Matters;
96. Jennings, 'Ideological thinking'.
97. For example, Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China: From Revolution through Reform (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995), ch. 7;
98. Feng Chen and Ting Gong, 'Party versus market in post-Mao China: the erosion of the Leninist organization from below', Journal of Communist Studies and Transitional Politics 13, (September 1997), pp. 148-166;
99. Mixin Pei, 'Is China democratizing?' Foreign Affairs, (January/ February 1998), pp. 68-82;
100. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
101. See, for example, Chen and Gong, 'Party versus market'.
102. Jie Chen and Peng Deng, China since the Cultural Revolution: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism (Westport: Praeger, 1995), p. 56.
103. For example, Tianjian Shi, Political Participation in Beijing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), p. 37;
104. O'Brien, 'Villagers, elections, and citizenship'.
105. See Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
106. For example, Converse, 'The nature of belief systems';
107. Granberg and Holmberg, The Political System Matters;
108. Jennings, 'Ideological thinking';
109. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems';
110. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
111. See Joseph Fewsmith, China since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
112. See, for example, Granberg and Holmberg, The Political System Matters;
113. Jennings, 'Ideologicals thinking';
114. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems';
115. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
116. These findings apparently parallel those from an earlier survey conducted in urban China, except that the order of the issues on which respondents in that study had the most and second most consistent views is different from that in our study. See Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
117. See, for example, O'Brien and Li, 'The politics of lodging complaints';
118. Li and O'Brien, 'Villagers and popular resistance';
119. Bernstein, 'Instability in rural China';
120. O'Brien, 'Villagers, elections, and citizenship'.
121. For example, Jennings, 'Ideological thinking';
122. Miller et al., 'Comparing citizen and elite belief systems';
123. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.
124. O'Brien, 'Villagers, elections, and citizenship', p. 426.
125. Jiang Zemin, 'Jixu jiaqiang dangfeng dangji jianshe' ['Continue to strengthen the party discipline'], People's Daily, (23 January 1998).
126. Based on a mutual agreement, we must maintain the anonymity of this institution due to concerns about political sensitivity.
127. See, for example, Andrew J. Nathan and Tianjian Shi, 'Cultural requisites for democracy in China: findings from a survey', Daedalus, (Spring 1993), pp. 95-123;
128. Chen, 'Comparing mass and elite subjective orientations'.