Popular support for village self-government in China: Intensity and sources

Asian Survey

Volumn 45, Issue 6, 2005, Pages 865-885

  Chen, Jie ^a  

^a OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

RURAL AREA; SELF GOVERNMENT;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 32144437417     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2005.45.6.865     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. For the quote, see National People's Congress, Constitution of the People's Republic of China (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1983), p. 80.
2. For specific regulations governing the self-government system, see ibid., Organic Law on Villager Committees (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1998).
3. See Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, The State of Civil Affairs in 1999, , accessed February 5, 2002.
4. For a summary of the debate on the percentage of VCs that are competitively elected, see Kevin J. O'Brien and Lianjiang Li, "Accommodating 'Democracy' in a One-Party State: Introducing Village Elections in China," China Quarterly 162 (June 2000), pp. 465-89.
5. For a detailed description of the government's reason for establishing the self-government system and the system's evolution, see, for example, Daniel Kelliher, "The Chinese Debate over Village Self-Government," China Journal 37 (January 1997), pp. 63-86;
6. Chun-Pin Chen, "Practice of Villager Self-Government System in Rural China: A Case Study of Southern Jiangsu Province," Zhong Shan Academic Journal of the National Taiwan University (in English) 16 (February 1998), pp. 115-39;
7. Xitang Liu, "Cunmin Zizhi yu Woguo Nongcun Minzhu de Tedian" [Villagers' self-governance and characteristics of democracy in rural China], Zhongguo Nongcun Jingji [China's Rural Economy] (December 1998), pp. 57-61;
8. Tianjian Shi, "Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy," World Politics 51 (April 1999), pp. 385-412;
9. Robert A. Pastor and Qingshan Tan, "The Meaning of China's Village Elections," China Quarterly 162 (June 2000), pp. 490-512;
10. Jean C. Oi and Scott Rozelle, "Elections and Power: The Locus of Decision-Making in Chinese Villages," ibid., pp. 513-39;
11. and Cheng Tongshun, Dangdai Zhongguo Nongcun Zhengzhi Fazhan Yanjiu [An analysis of political development in contemporary Chinese villages] (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2000).
12. See Liu, "Cunmin Zizhi yu Woguo Nongcun Minzhu de Tedian"
13. Chen, "Practice of Villager Self-Government System in Rural China"
14. and Cheng, Dangdai Zhongguo Nongcun Zhengzhi Fazhan Yanjiu.
15. Most survey-based studies of Chinese village politics have thus far focused on mass political participation and mass-elite electoral connections. See, for example, Melanie Manion, "The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside," American Political Science Review (APSR) 90 (December 1996), pp. 736-48;
16. M. Kent Jennings, "Political Participation in the Chinese Countryside," ibid., 91 (June 1997), pp. 361-72;
17. Shi, "Village Committee Elections in China"
18. Oi and Rozelle, "Elections and Power"
19. Yang Zhong and Jie Chen, "To Vote or Not to Vote: An Analysis of Peasants' Participation in Chinese Village Elections," Comparative Political Studies 35 (August 2002), pp. 686-712.
20. See ibid., p. 690.
21. Rural Zhejiang and Guangdong ranked first (4,254 yuan) ($530) and second (3,600 yuan) ($450) highest, respectively. See United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Population Program Database, , accessed May 16, 2003.
22. "Hundred-million-yuan villages" refers to those villages whose total earnings have exceeded 100 million yuan. For the ones in Jiangsu Province, see Ming Zhang, A Study of the Village Level Organization in Jiangsu (Suzhou, China: Suzhou University Press, 2000), p. 1.
23. For more information about the debate, see Shi, "Economic Development and Village Elections in Rural China"
24. and Oi and Rozelle, "Elections and Power."
25. See Yang Zhong, "Village Democracy in China: The Case of Jiangsu Province," in Taiwan and Mainland China: Democratization, Political Participation, and Economic Development in the 1990s, ed. Thomas J. Bellows (New York: Center of Asian Studies, St. John's University, 2000), p. 276.
26. See Zhang, A Study of the Village Level Organization in Jiangsu.
27. Based on mutual agreement, we must maintain the anonymity of this institution because of concerns about political sensitivity.
28. See, for example, Andrew J. Nathan and Tianjian Shi, "Cultural Requisites for Democracy in China: Findings from a Survey," Daedalus 122 (Spring 1993), pp. 95-123;
29. Jie Chen, "Comparing Mass and Elite Subjective Orientations in Urban China," Public Opinion Quarterly 63 (Summer 1999), pp. 193-219.
30. See David Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley & Son, 1965).
31. For application of this conceptualization in the Chinese setting, see, for example, Jie Chen, Popular Political Support in Urban China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004);
32. Jie Chen, Yang Zhong, Jan Hillard, and John Scheb, "Assessing Political Support in China: Citizens' Evaluations of Government Effectiveness and Legitimacy," Journal of Contemporary China, no. 16 (November 1997), pp. 551-66.
33. For application in non-Chinese settings, see, for example, James L. Gibson and Gregory A. Caldeira, "Blacks and the United States Supreme Court: Models of Diffuse Support," Journal of Politics 54 (November 1992), pp. 1120-45;
34. Steven E. Finkel, Edward N. Muller, and Mitchell Seligson, "Economic Crisis, Incumbent Performance, and Regime Support: A Comparison of Longitudinal Data from West Germany and Costa Rica," British Journal of Political Science 19 (July 1989), pp. 329-51.
35. Seymour Martin Lipset, Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1981);
36. Arthur H. Miller, "Political Issues and Trust in Government: 1964-1970," APSR 68 (September 1974), pp. 951-72;
37. Finkel, Muller, and Seligson, "Economic Crisis, Incumbent Performance, and Regime Support."
38. The term "affect" was originally used by David Easton, referring to deeply rooted feelings for political objects.
39. David Easton, "Theoretical Approaches to Political Support," Canadian Journal of Political Science 9 (September 1976), p. 436.
40. Ibid., p. 437.
41. Ibid., p. 278.
42. For a summary of empirical measures of mass political support used in the studies of non-Chinese settings, see Mary Jo Reef and David Knoke, "Political Alienation and Efficacy," in Measures of Political Attitudes, eds. John P. Robinson, Phillip R. Shaver, and Lawrence S. Wrightsman (N. Y.: Academic Press, 1999).
43. For empirical measurements adopted in the Chinese setting, see, for example, Chen, Popular Political Support in Urban China,
44. and Chen et al., "Assessing Political Support in China."
45. Edward N. Muller and Thomas O. Jukam, "On the Meaning of Political Support," APSR 77 (December 1977), p. 1566.
46. Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life, p. 287.
47. See Liu, "Cunmin Zizhi yu Woguo Nongcun Minzhu de Tedian."
48. But some other studies, especially those by China-based scholars, suggest that more and more villagers may have become indifferent to or cynical about the system. See, for example, Cao Yongxing, "Lun Zhuanxing Shiqi de Nongmin Zhengzhi Canyu" [Discussion on peasants' political participation during the transformational period], Kafang Shidai [Open Times], no. 4 (April 1997), pp. 11-16;
49. Cheng Tongshun, Dangdai Zhongguo Nongcun Zhengzhi Fazhan Yanjiu, chs. 6,7.
50. See O'Brien and Li, "Accommodating 'Democracy' in a One-Party State"
51. Manion, "The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside"
52. Wang Xu, "Mutual Empowerment of State and Peasantry: Grassroots Democracy in Rural China," World Development 25 (September 1997), pp. 1431-42;
53. Kevin J. O'Brien, "Villagers, Elections, and Citizenship in Contemporary China," Modern China 27 (October 2001), pp. 407-35.
54. Lianjiang Li, "Political Trust in Rural China," Modern China 30 (April 2004), pp. 228-58. "Political trust" as used in Li's study is conceptually the same as "diffuse support" used in this study, although the respective survey questions differ.
55. See Taicang Municipal Government, Taicang Shizhengfu Gongzuo Jianbao [Newsletter of Taicang Municipal Government Affairs], no. 151 (1999).
56. See, for example, Miller, "Political Issues and Trust in Government"
57. Finkel, Muller, and Seligson, "Economic Crisis, Incumbent Performance, and Regime Support"
58. Arthur H. Miller, "In Search of Regime Legitimacy," in Public Opinion and Regime Change: The New Politics of Post-Soviet Societies, eds. Arthur H. Miller, William M. Reisinger, and Vicki L. Hesli (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993).
59. See Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life;
60. idem., "Theoretical Approaches to Political Support"
61. Allan Kornberg and Harold D. Clarke, Citizens and Community: Political Support in a Representative Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
62. Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life, pp. 267-68.
63. See, for example, J. D. Aberbach and J. L. Walker, "Political Trust and Racial Ideology," APSR 64 (December 1970), pp. 1199-1219;
64. W. F. Murphy, J. Tanenhaus, and D. L. Kastner, Public Evaluations of Constitutional Courts: Alternative Explanations (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1973);
65. Miller, "Political Issues and Trust in Government"
66. Edward N. Muller and Carol J. Williams, "Dynamics of Political Support-Alienation," Comparative Political Studies 13 (April 1980), pp. 33-59.
67. Kelliher, "The Chinese Debate over Village Self-Government," p. 69.
68. See Jie Chen, Yang Zhong, and Jan Hillard, "The Level and Sources of Popular Support for China's Current Authoritarian Regime," Communist and Post Communist Studies 30 (March 1997), pp. 45-64;
69. Chen, "Comparing Mass and Elite Subjective Orientations in Urban China."
70. The relevance of these policy areas to our sample was assessed in the pretest prior to the administration of this survey. The results from the pretest indicated widespread interest in each of these policy areas. Also, some recent studies of village self-government have confirmed the relevance of these items; see, for example, Bjorn Alpermann, "The Post-Election Administration of Chinese Villages," China Journal 46 (July 2001), pp. 45-67;
71. Yongshun Cai, "Collective Ownership or Cadres' Ownership? The Non-agricultural Use of Farmland in China," China Quarterly, no. 175 (September 2003), pp. 662-80.
72. The results from a reliability analysis for these nine items show that the inter-item correlations are generally moderate, ranging from .302 to .716. This set of nine items yields a reliability coefficient (alpha) of .850.
73. See Easton, A Systems Analysis of Political Life, p. 290.
74. See Miller, "Political Issues and Trust in Government," pp. 951-72;
75. Muller and Jukam, "On the Meaning of Political Support," pp. 1561-95;
76. Finkel, Muller, and Seligson, "Economic Crisis, Incumbent Performance, and Regime Support," pp. 329-51;
77. Chen, Zhong, and Hillard, "The Level and Sources of Popular Support for China's Current Authoritarian Regime," pp. 45-64.
78. For example, Kevin O'Brien, one of the leading scholars of rural Chinese politics, has summarized the serious problems in various areas (e.g., election committees, nomination procedures, village elections, and VC-Party relations) of the village self-government system that have prevented this system from being fully democratic. See O'Brien, "Villagers, Elections, and Citizenship in Contemporary China," pp. 419-23.
79. In their recent field study of southern Guangdong Province, for example, Guo Zhenglin and Thomas Bernstein find that Party secretaries in general are still much more influential and powerful than elected VC leaders. See Guo Zhenglin and Thomas P. Bernstein, "The Impact of Elections on the Villages Structure of Power: The Relations between the Village Committees and the Party Branches," Journal of Contemporary China, no. 13 (May 2004), pp. 257-75.
80. See Shi, "Village Committee Elections in China."
81. In his recent survey study, for example, John Kennedy analyzes the effects of control by both village and township Party organizations over village elections, finding that control by town-ship Party organizations is more unpopular than that by village Party organization. See John James Kennedy, "The Face of 'Grassroots Democracy' in Rural China: Real Versus Cosmetic Elections," Asian Survey 42:3 (May/June 2002), pp. 456-82.
82. Kornberg and Clarke, Citizens and Community, p. 136.
83. See, for instance, Liu, "Cunmin Zizhi yu Woguo Nongcun Minzhu de Tedian," pp. 59-60.
84. The actual quality of the VC election and the presence of clans in the village could also be important contextual variables that might significantly influence villagers' attitudes toward both the system of village self-government and the incumbent village authorities. In our survey, however, the results of the measure of the electoral quality or competitiveness - the presence of a more-candidates-than-contested-posts ballot (cha e xuanju) - had too little variation among the sample villages (78 of the 84 sample villages had cha e xuanju in the recent election) to be included in our statistical analysis. In addition, regrettably, no data were collected about the village clans.
85. See Edward N. Muller, "Correlates and Consequences of Beliefs in the Legitimacy of Regime Structures," Midwest Journal of Political Science 14 (August 1970), pp. 393-94;
86. Kornberg and Clarke, Citizens and Community, p. 22;
87. Miller, "In Search of Regime Legitimacy."
88. Manion, "The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside," p. 740.
89. Oi and Rozelle, "Elections and Power."
90. See Manion, "The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside"
91. Pastor and Tan, "The Meaning of China's Village Elections"
92. Cheng, Dangdai Zhongguo Nongcun Zhengzhi Fazhan Yanjiu.
93. For example, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (under the State Council) and the Central Organization Department (under the Central Committee of the CCP), both of which are responsible for the implementation of village self-government, held quite different attitudes toward self-government during the 1990s. Such a difference inevitably caused discrepancies in policies and efforts made by these two government institutions when implementing self-government. See, for example, O'Brien and Li, "Accommodating 'Democracy' in a One-Party State," pp. 479-80.
94. Jie Chen, "Subjective Motivations for Mass Political Participation in Urban China, "Social Science Quarterly 81 (June 2000), pp. 645-62;
95. and Jie Chen and Yang Zhong, "Why Do People Vote in Semicompetitive Elections in China?" Journal of Politics 64 (February 2002), pp. 178-97.