The Influence of
the Rural Elections
on the Future
Democracy Development of China
( Summary )
By Lui Keng-shuen
- For the past decade in China, what has got the function
of propelling democratization is the relatively
outstanding election of the Rural Villagers Committee.
- At present there are two types of direct elections in
China with widespread popular participation, namely the
election of the county level and the village level people’s
congress, and the election of the Villagers Committee,
the former being more important and the latter arresting
more concern. This is because the nature of democracy of
the election of the Village Committee far exceeds that of
the election of the local people’s congress.
- Since 1978, ‘household contracted responsibilities
system’ was launched in the rural areas. As the economy
was recovering, the people’s commune system began to
disintegrate. A situation of chaos appeared in many rural
areas and some of the peasants began coping the situation
with their own ways. In late 1980 autonomous
organizations in the forms of Villagers Committee
appeared in the rural areas. Thereafter similar
organizations emerged in various places.
- In 1983, the people’s commune system formally came to
its demise. However the chaos situation did not improve.
- In 1987 the National People’s Congress passed the
tentative ‘Villagers Committee Organization Law’.
- In 1998 the amended ‘Villages Committee Organization
Law’ was passed, the content was more complete and
detailed than before, with more detailed stipulation on
the procedure of direct election of the Village
Committee, and the system of villagers representative
conference. It also clearly stipulated the leading
relation of the rural basic level committee of the
Chinese Communist Party with the Villages Committee.
- There are two trends of development of the Villagers
Committee : One of them is under Government’s
intentional guidance , the Village Committee takes up
prominent function of administration. The other is that
there is a trend that the Government is tightening the
supervision and regulation of the Villagers Committee.
- The success of the villagers’ autonomy since its
implementation is generally affirmed. The ‘four
democrats’ it was pursuing , namely democratic
election, democratic policy, democratic management and
democratic supervision, are also widely recognised.
- The villagers’ autonomy has three positive functions:
Firstly, it has innovation in the election system which
is very likely to bring about major breakthrough.
Secondly, changes gradually appear in the way of
management of the party and Government organisations .
Thirdly, personal interests are recognised and there are
demands to effectively safeguard them. Such mentality of
civic rights began conceiving and developing among the
peasants, and the trend is irreversible.
- The villagers’ autonomy has its limitations: Firstly,
autonomous villages are not prevalent. Secondly, the
villagers’ autonomy, including the villagers’
committees, are extremely easy to be manipulated and
marginalized by party and government organisations and is
thus only symbolic. Thirdly, even in rural areas where
villagers’ autonomy is better implemented, it is
difficult to push the practice of villagers’ committee
to a higher level.
- The democratization of China needs a fully-planned
propelling force with clear leadership from above as well
as sporadic individual and social preparation from below.