Elections,Democratic Values,and Economic Development in Rural China

This paper assesses several assumptions underlying the promotion of democracy and good governance in rural China. We draw on a 1999 survey of 120 villages in four counties, two in Anhui and two in Heilongjiang provinces (sample of 2,997 households, including villagers, cadres and entrepreneurs). First, we look at how institutionalized ‘democratic procedures’, such as secret ballots, multi-candidate elections, public nominations, and village contracts, are in these villages. Then we analyze villager views on economic development and democracy, finding that villagers want more democracy, even if the economy is doing well. Third, we assess their views on the election process; do they see elections as efficacious, fair, and competitive, or do they feel that the local power elite manipulate outcomes? Fourth, we found that the richest people are less supportive of democracy, with the most democratic being middle-income households. Finally, elections have increased local elite turnover, cadres understand this, and therefore, democracy does lead to good governance.     

State Power and Village Cadres in Contemporary China: the case of rural land transfer in Shandong province

In the case of land transfer in rural China, why do some village cadres act as entrepreneurs, some become middlemen between agribusinesses and peasants, and others choose to be passive bystanders? Based on comparative case studies in Shandong province, it is argued that state power, rather than village elections, informal solidary groups and economic benefits, is the dominant explanatory mechanism. This article suggests that our discussion of the state–village cadre relationship should not be limited to the control perspective. To achieve policy objectives, village cadres' ability and creativity are as important as motivation to local government. Substantial support makes village cadres more capable, and some degree of leeway is necessary for creativity. Local government relies on three forms of leverage (control, support and non-intervention) to address three issues (motivation, ability and creativity) in shaping behavioral patterns of village cadres.     

乡村政治研究中的“保护-逆保护”

保护关系与逆保护是人类生活中一种常见的交换关系,保护者与被保护者在资源占有、社会地位、社会影响等方面是不对等的,但保护者在一定情况下可能成为被保护者,而被保护者也有可能成为保护者.在乡村政治研究中.特别是乡村干部之间的关系、村民与村干部之间的关系、村干部的腐败等领域,"保护-逆保护"成为一种具有一定解释力的分析范式.     

Village Election and Governance: do villagers care?

Village elections at the grassroots level have been regularly conducted for more than a decade in the context of the Chinese political system. Both negative and positive views have been expressed and written on village elections. How does one evaluate Chinese village elections? Free and fair elections require conformity to international election principles, rules, and procedures. This study develops a minimum procedural criterion to assess if village elections have followed internationally-accepted rules and procedures of free and fair elections. We also measure the meaningfulness of village elections by examining the effects of elections on village governance and villagers' life. We find that elections have been conducted in a manner consistent with proscribed rules and procedures and are generally free and fair, and there is a considerable convergence of views of villagers and cadres who see that elections are meaningful in producing positive changes in village governance and life. The data also confirm that elected villagers' committees are still in the long shadow of township governments and village Party branches.     

大学生村官角色认同实证研究

以大学生村官角色认同问题为切入点，对开展大学生村官工程具有代表性的河南省鹤壁市农村的村民、村干部和大学生村官进行了问卷调查和访谈，通过对调查数据的统计与分析，归纳出河南省鹤壁市大学生村官角色认同问题的现状，初步得出影响大学生村官角色认同的主要因素，并提出优化大学生村官角色认同的对策与建议。     

Economic Development and the Implementation of Village Elections in Rural China

Based on survey data from rural Fujian Province of China, this paper shows that economic development, especially village collective revenue, plays an important role in village elections. With economic development and industrialization, collective revenues will increase and differentiated interests will develop among villagers. Village elections are institutional channels for villagers to articulate their interests. The research findings show that it is the collective revenue and the relative living standard of the village compared with other townships within the same county or district that arouse villagers' interests for participation and candidates' motives for campaigning, and thus enhance the implementation of elections. The paper concludes that village-level economic development is crucial for the implementation of competitive elections. With economic development, village committees will control more collective revenues, thus increasing the stakes villagers have in elections. This will result in greater participation by villagers in elections, and in more competitive elections. Increased competitiveness of elections will facilitate changes in the institutions regarding village committee elections.     

试论我国农村新型治理结构的重构

改革开放以来,农村所发生的经济、社会变迁推动着我国乡村治理结构的转型,也催生了村民自治这一新型的基层民主制度。在村民自治这一制度架构下,一种基于治理理念的新型农村社会治理模式成为可能,即以村民委员会民主选举制度为核心,以村务公开为制度保障,通过培育具有自主治理性质的乡村社团组织,发掘传统乡村社会的文化资源,将制度创新与本土资源的发掘结合起来。     

村庄权力系统中女村官地位的类型分析--基于江西三个村的实证调查

从处于权力中心不同力量之间的博弈关系来理解权力的本质,是分析权力系统的一个重要思路。女村官是村治中进入村庄权力系统中心的特殊群体,以女村官与政府的关系、女村官与男村官的关系、女村官与村民的关系为变量,以它们的不同表现形式考察三个变量之间的组合关系,可将女村官在村庄权力系统中的地位分成三种类型,即弱势型、强势型和均衡型。分析这三种类型将有助于深刻理解村庄政治,积极推动农村政治的发展。     

农村仪式性人情异化后果及其矫正

当前农村普遍面临着仪式性人情异化的困境。基于鄂西H县Z村的实地调查发现,人情名目的无序增加、随礼规则的失序和礼金的攀升以及去仪式化构成了仪式性人情的异化面向,仪式性人情变异为功利性人情。传统人情交往规则的瓦解是造成人情异化的宏观背景,经济分化背景下富人群体的带动、村民村庄生活预期的短期化以及村民对在村关系的依赖所导致的人情退出机制的缺乏是人情异化产生的中观层面原因。仪式性人情的异化带来了农村消费性贫困的生成、社会交往的底层排斥以及村庄社会关系的撕裂等社会后果。建议可充分借助政策及制度手段,有针对性地强化地方政府对农村人情交往秩序的引导作用,使之有意识地对农村做出移风易俗的努力,积极倡导社会主义新型物质精神文明的建设,重建农村良性的人情交往秩序。     

论涉农职务犯罪的特点与预防对策——以南芬区人民检察院为例

近年来,村干部贪污、受贿等职务犯罪频发,影响了新农村建设的健康发展,广大农民对此深恶痛绝。为此,本溪市南芬区人民检察院结合近三年来查办的村干部职务犯罪情况,对辖区涉农贪污、受贿等职务犯罪案件基本情况、发案原因及特点进行了较为全面的调查和分析,并就如何有针对性地做好职务犯罪预防工作提出了几点建议。     

Getting Ahead in Rural China: the elite–cadre divide and its implications for rural governance

This article will outline the politics and pathways of promotion among government officials working in a rural county in Anhui province and their attitudes towards elite status. It will analyze the implications these processes and pathways have for the operation of local government in rural China. Drawing on interviews and relationships spanning a ten-year period (2004–2013), this article primarily relies upon the personal experiences of colleagues and friends who have attempted to rise through the ranks of government and business in Benghai County, with varying degrees of success. While the article will focus on political elites, in Benghai it is impossible to separate business from politics. This article will delineate strategies adopted for career advancement and attaining elite political status, and the effects these strategies have on the relationship between political elites and ordinary cadres.     

社会转型与中国乡村权力结构研究--传统文化、乡镇企业和乡政村治

党的十一届三中全会以来,我国农村的改革促进了乡村社会的转型,传统文化的复兴、乡镇企业的崛起、乡政村治的建立等等导致了乡村权力结构中包含的具有各自利益需求和交换关系的主体--国家、基层政府、社区组织、乡镇企业、村民等等--不同身份特征的获得,并决定了他们有可能占有的资源及其相互的利益关联.对11省14个村庄的调查和比较,再现了转型期乡村权力结构的调整和重构.     

Power to the People? Villagers' self-rule in a North China village from the locals' point of view

This article examines ethnographically the implementation of the Organic Law and practice of ‘villagers’ self-rule' in a North China village from 2003 to 2004. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation, it recounts the election of a villagers' committee and the functioning of a ‘democratic supervisory small group’. It shows that critical disparities exist between what Chinese policymakers and many scholars argue for on the one hand (for instance, enhancing cadre accountability, empowering ordinary villagers, and promoting grassroots democracy), and how most villagers view the actual practices on the other. It concludes that the locals' negative views are not idiosyncratic, the vision of ‘rule by the people’ remains difficult to take root, and that local metaphors are resourcefully used to make sense of newly-introduced practices.     

Role of Rural Regulations in Environmental Protection and Green Development——Findings from Wendou Village in Guizhou Province

The widespread involvement in social action involving environmental protection, green development and sustainable development by means of people-oriented rural regulations in Wendou Village of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Minority Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province is quite unique and is in keeping with the basic spirit of the Declaration on the Right to Development.Wendou has long been known to cherish the tradition of making rural regulations to govern the village and protect the environment. In the entrance of Wendou, there is a stone stele called "Stele of Six Points for Prohibition" and another stele recording management of forestry resources set up twelve years later than the first one. These prohibitory regulations on the steles gradually became customary law in the form of rural regulations, which has had a significant role in environmental protection in Wendou Village. Adhering to those self-governing traditions, Wendou villagers enacted Villagers' s Self-governance Agreement in September 10 th of 2015, which stipulated the villagers' and the village committee's obligations in environmental protection both directly and indirectly.The green development mechanism and system set up in Wendou village would severely punish environmental destruction. Wendou's experiences show that rural regulations have a positive effect on environmental protection.     

河北省农村妇女土地权益保护状况研究

本文结合河北省实际,从理论和实践两个层面,对农村妇女土地权益的保护问题进行了全面探讨.分析了当前河北省妇女土地权益的特征以及现行政策法律的不足,介绍了其他省的经验,并就村民自治如何做到民意性与合法性的统一、出嫁女的村集体经济组织成员资格界定等热点问题,提出了自己的看法.     

关于加强乡镇干部队伍建设的几点思考

乡镇干部队伍建设的状况,直接关系社会主义新农村建设与和谐社会的构建、关系党执政能力提高和基础的巩固。但目前,乡镇干部队伍建设存在着不少问题。本文讲述了加强乡镇干部队伍建设的重要性和乡镇干部队伍建设存在的主要问题,并分析了当前乡镇干部队伍建设存在问题的原因,提出了加强乡镇干部队伍建设的建议。     

Learning About a Chinese Village in a Leninist-Party Authoritarian State

How does one overcome the institutionalized obstacles to understanding the networks of power in the PRC which reach down in complex ways from the center to the village? There is no reason for villagers who need patrons for access to scarce resources to commit to telling the truth. There is no reason for local officials to commit to telling the truth when careers depend on pleasing higher-ups and not on revealing how patron–client networks work. After 25 years and almost three dozen visits to one rural county, certain research techniques were developed—and are described—for seeing the invisible and understanding the political context which shapes local opportunities.     

浅析大学生村官退出机制

大学生村官已成为新农村建设的重要力量,但在服务农村建设的同时,他们也面临聘期满后出路选择的诸多困境.因此,完善大学生村官退出机制就尤为重要.针对大学生村官退出机制存在的问题以及退出机制不畅的原因,有必要从以下几方面加以解决：一是建立完善保障机制,激发队伍活力;二是逐步完善大学生村官选拔任用政策;三是优化创业环境,促使村官扎根基层;四是加大另行择业的引导力度;五是建立齐抓共管机制,畅通就业渠道.     

从“乡约”到村规民约:比较与反思

村规民约是村民自治的重要载体。基于乡村振兴调查数据与实地调查资料发现,村规民约在实行中存在不足,将村规民约视为管理乡村的制度,忽视了村规民约的社会组织功能;村规民约在实践中受到行政力量的较大干预;契约性不足。在此基础之上,比较分析了“乡约”与村规民约存在的一些共同的特征,基层性、政府的干预、村民的教化及遵从,构成了村规民约实践的先天缺陷。基于“三角模型”对实践中的不足进行反思,可以从村民、村民自治组织以及政府三个方面进一步推进村规民约的实行。