Chinese Rural Power Structure

Author: Guo Zhenglin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Chinese village politics has a dual-structure nature. In the past, it was "joint governance by officials and the people," and now it is "dual structure of the Party and the government." Upon deeper examination, it is inevitable for agricultural nations to draw power resources from rural society, which requires the state's power to penetrate rural areas. Rural society must also rely on state power to maintain basic social order. Thus, villages become intersections of state power and local authority, endowing village governance organizations with a dual function: serving the state while also safeguarding the common interests of villagers. Therefore, village officials who perform this governance function are both agents of the state and spokespersons for village interests. Since the 1990s, village committee elections have been widely implemented in rural China, leading to changes in the sources of power legitimacy and, consequently, in the rural power structure. This transformation is both the development of socialist democracy at the grassroots level and a shift in rural social governance systems. In-depth research on this institutional change reveals how a single institutional innovation can alter farmers' political participation methods, levels, and political attitudes, as well as how it reshapes rural social-political relations and governance approaches. Why do village elections produce a chain reaction effect? This must be understood in terms of power resources, the sources of power legitimacy, and other aspects. This book conducts in-depth research on these issues from various perspectives.