Tianjian Shi

Village Committee Elections in China: Institutionalist Tactics for Democracy

Earlier institutionalist studies in Chinese politics have shown how conservatives and local bureaucrats took advantage of institutional designs in the Leninist system of the Peoples Republic of China to delay and undermine the implementation of reforms. There has been less discussion of how reformers adapted their strategies to existing institutional constraints to overcome the opposition of conservatives. Using the implementation process of the Organic Law of the Village Committees, this article describes how the reformers adapted to the Chinese institutional setting to promote political reform over opposition at the elite and local levels. As the case of the village elections shows, the reformers in China designed a strategy to promote reform incrementally. Each step along the way was arranged to appear to be a natural response to the interaction between the initial reform policy and unforeseen consequences brought about by the previous policy. In this process, reformers deliberately manipulated a crucial variable--time--to bring about gradual change in the important actor, that is, the peasants, from spectators into participants, and thereby to change the balance of power between proponents and opponents of the reform. Other political players were also carefully enfranchised at different stages of the implementation process to help reformers in their struggle against conservatives.

Inequality in Chinese Education

This article investigates the status of educational equality in China in the context of the reform of major Chinese economic, political, and social institutions at the turn of the twenty-first century. In the first part of this article, the authors address the importance of the theoretical issue of equality in education and explore the relationship between theories of human capital, modernization, and political culture. They begin with a general introduction of the theme, and then explore the linkages between basic education (literacy and numeracy), the increasing productivity of the labor force, and the essential guarantee of basic human rights—necessary for survival. They then discuss how advanced education provides people with the necessary adaptability and creativity to perform in a world characterized by rapidly developing technology and a complex management system. The second part of the article uses statistical data to describe current educational conditions and the extent of the variance in educational attainment for different groups. They conduct the analysis from two perspectives: (1) comparing the effects of gender, ethnicity (minorities), and disability status on educational attainment; and (2) by comparing the effects of gender, minority status, and disability status on educational attainment in four types of regions, as defined by economic and social development. In the final part of the paper, the authors try to find the particular government policies that are responsible for exiting discrepancies in educational achievement. The article concludes with a number of policy recommendations.

Voting and Nonvoting in China: Voting Behavior in Plebiscitary and Limited- Choice Elections

Students of political participation have engaged in intensive study of voting behavior in democratic societies and of nonvoting in communist societies during their totalitarian stage. However, little effort has been made to study voting behavior in communist societies at the authoritarian stage. Using data gathered from China, this paper explores voting behavior during this critical stage of political development. The analyses show that voting behavior in noncompetitive plebiscitary elections is fundamentally different from voting behavior in semicompetitive elections. When provided with limited choice on election day, persons with greater political resources no longer abstain from voting as a form of protest. Survey data show that they vote in such elections to pursue their political interests. The desire to punish corrupt officials and to facilitate democratic transformation plays a crucial role in motivating traditionally politically active people to vote in limited-choice elections.

The Shadow of Confucianism

Abstract:Scholars have been puzzled by the high level of support for democracy, as well as the high level of support for the authoritarian regime, in China, as revealed in numerous surveys. In this paper, Shi and Lu argue that people in different societies may understand democracy in distinct ways. Confucian culture defines democracy in terms of Minben, which is different from the procedural understanding of democracy following the liberal tradition. These two definitions generate different expectations for the government, provide varying standards for assessing political legitimacy, and define distinct functions of participation. Their findings suggest that meaningful comparative studies of support for democracy require scholars to be sensitive to culturally embedded understandings of democracy in different societies.

Economic development and village elections in rural China

Many observers of Chinese politics suggest that there are certain relationships between economic development and village elections. Using empirical data gathered from a 1993 nationwide survey, this study examines whether economic development is associated in any way with successful elections in Chinese villages. The analysis reveals that the relationship between economic development and village elections appears to be a concave curve: economic wealth increases the likelihood that a village will hold semicompetitive elections for people to choose their leaders, but its impact diminishes as economic wealth increases. Rapid economic development may even delay the process of political development because incumbent leaders can use newly acquired economic resources to consolidate their power by: (1) making peasants more dependent on the village authority; (2) providing incumbent leaders with resources to co‐opt peasants; and (3) providing incumbent leaders with resources to bribe their superiors to ignore the d...

Subjective Evaluation of Changes in Civil Liberties and Political Rights in China

This paper examines the subjective evaluation of the changes and continuity in status of civil liberties and political rights by ordinary people in China. Our analysis, based on survey data, reveals that an absolute majority of people believe that both civil liberty and political freedom in China have improved significantly since 1979. To verify the validity of the survey findings, we analyze the contents of Peoples Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party in 1976, 1978, 1988 and 2002. We found that Peoples Daily, the most conservative newspaper in China, published an increasing number of critical articles about the government. Its criticism not only challenged individual officials but also the fundamental development strategy adopted by the CCP. In content analysis, we also trace how four key terms—democracy, freedom, human rights, and religion—were employed in Peoples Daily. The analysis shows that the official rhetoric appearing in Peoples Daily exhibited a steady positive trend in describing these terms. We conclude our discussion by analyzing those who are more likely to perceive civil liberties and political rights as improved over time in China. The analysis reveals that those with a better education and a higher income are more likely to perceive positive changes in Chinese society.

Generational differences in political attitudes and political behaviour in China

Until recently, generational studies of Communist countries have concentrated promarily on elite changes. Little attention has been paid to the changes within the general punlic. This study reports on: the socio-economic resources of different generations, especially their educational achievements; the psychological resources for people in different generations to get involved in politics; their political resources; and their political participation. The text concludes with an appraisal of the changes among different generations that should help hte reader to understand the changes in Chinese society.

China's Transition

1. China Bites Back2. A History of Cruelty3. Mao and His Court4. Maoist Institutions and Post-Mao Reform5. Chinese Democracy: The Lessons of Failure6. The Democratic Vision7. The Decision for Reform in Taiwan8. Electing Taiwans Legislature (written with with Helena V.S. Ho)9. The Struggle for Hong Kongs Future10. Is Chinese Culture Distinctive?11. Cultural Requisites for Democracy in China (written with Tianjian Shi)12. Left and Right in Dengs China (written with Tianjian Shi)13. The Place of Values in Cross-Cultural Studies14. The Chinese Volcano15. The Constitutionalist Option16. Human Rights and American China Policy