Grassroots Elections in China

<p>Twenty years after the launch of village elections, the time is ripe to assess the progress and impact of China’s most notable political reform. Where have elections been conducted well and where have they been conducted poorly? How have procedures changed over the years and have elections truly transformed how power is exercised in the countryside? What methods are researchers employing to study elections and how have scholars from different disciplines contributed to our knowledge of grassroots politics in China?</p><p>This book carefully examines the implementation and effects of China’s village, township, and people’s congress elections, both in terms of democratizing the polity and spurring other changes in state-society relations.</p><p>The chapters in this book have been published across several issues of the <em>Journal of Contemporary China</em>.</p> <p>1. Introduction: China’s Grassroots Elections <em>Kevin J. O’Brien </em><strong>Part 1: Assessing Village Elections </strong> 2. Path to Democracy? Assessing Village Elections in China <em>Kevin J. O'Brien</em> <em>and</em> <em>Rongbin Han </em> 3. How to Assess Village Elections in China <em>Melanie Manion</em> 4. Studying 'Democratic' Governance in Contemporary China: Looking at the Village is Not Enough <em>Gunter Schubert</em> 5. Legitimacy with Chinese Characteristics: 'Two Increases, One Reduction' <em>John James Kennedy</em> 6. Institutionalizing Village Governance in China <em>Bjorn Alpermann</em> 7. Building Democratic Infrastructure: Village Electoral Institutions <em>Qingshan Tan</em> <strong>Part 2: Studies of Village Elections </strong> 8. Power to the People? Villagers' Self-Rule in a North China Village from the Locals’ Point of View <em>Zongze Hu </em> 9. Village Elections and Governance: Do Villagers' Care? <em>Qingshan Tan</em> <em>and</em> <em>Xin Qiushui</em> 10. Women's Political Participation in China: In Whose Interest Elections? <em>Jude Howell</em> 11. The Impact of Elections on the Village Structure of Power: The Relations between Village Committees and the Party Branches <em>Guo Zhenglin</em> <em>and</em> <em>Thomas Bernstein</em> <strong>Part 3: Elections and the Local Economy </strong>12. Elections, Democratic Values, and Economic Development in Rural China <em>David Zweig</em> <em>and</em> <em>Chung Siu Fung</em> 13. Economic Development and the Implementation of Village Elections in Rural China <em>Rong Hu</em> 14. Economic Development and Village Elections in Rural China <em>Tianjian Shi</em> <strong>Part 4: Township and People’s Congress Elections </strong>15. Direct Township Elections in China: Latest Developments and Prospects <em>Dong Lisheng</em> 16. Independent Candidates in China’s Local People’s Congresses: A Typology <em>He Junzhi</em></p>