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3. Xiangyang, Yu, “Cunmin weiyuanhui banle shier jian da shi,” (“Villagers' committees do 12 jobs”), Neibu wengao (Internal Manuscripts), No. 20 (1983), pp. 17–24Google Scholar; also Wang, Xu, “Mutual empowerment,” p. 1436Google Scholar; Epstein, , “Village elections,” p. 406.Google Scholar On proto-VCs in Sichuan, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Yunnan and other provinces, see Zhongtian, Wang, “The development of grassroots democracy,” p. 1Google Scholar; Gang, Bai, “Zhongguo cunmin zizhi fazhi jianshe pingyi” (“Discussing legal construction concerning villagers' self-government in China”), Zhongguo shehui kexue (Social Sciences in China), No. 3 (05 1998), p. 88Google Scholar; and Cheng, Liu and Junming, Dong, “Dalemu cun minzhu xuanju cunzhang de diaocha” (“An investigation of the democratic election of village chiefs in Dalemu village”), Nongcun jingji wenti (Rural Economic Issues), No. 8 (1982), pp. 38–39.Google Scholar

4. Xiangyang, Yu, “A great invention,” p. 21.Google Scholar The author did not explain what would happen if the vote did not produce a two-thirds majority.

5. Yihua, Bai, Zhongguo jiceng zhengquan de gaige yu tansuo (Reform and Exploration of China's Basic-Level Governance) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe, 1995), p. 284.Google Scholar

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7. Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 284–85.Google Scholar

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10. Ibid. p. 304. See also, Choate, Allen C., “Local governance in China: an assessment of villagers committees,” Working Paper No. 1 (San Francisco: The Asia Foundation, 1997), p. 6.Google Scholar

11. In Hinton, Harold C. (ed.), The People's Republic of China 1979–1984 (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1986), p. 108.Google Scholar

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13. On various border regions, see Chen, , Making Revolution, p. 223Google Scholar; Keating, Pauline B., Two Revolutions (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 131–35Google Scholar; Kataoka, Tetsuya, Resistance and Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), p. 241Google Scholar; Levine, Steven I., Anvil of Victory (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), pp. 111–13Google Scholar; Zhen, Peng, “Report on the work of the party and specific policies in the Jin Cha Ji border region,” in Saich, Tony (ed.), The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), p. 1035.Google Scholar

14. On Shaanbei, see Keating, , Two Revolutions pp. 130–146.Google Scholar On “controlled polarization” more generally, see Chen, , Making Revolution, pp. 11–12, 230Google Scholar; Although “strengthening the grip of the party over the entire region” is not his focus, see also Seiden, , China in Revolution, p. 128.Google Scholar In a first-person report that stresses the Party's democratic achievements, Belden, Jack, China Shakes the World (New York: Harpers, 1949), p. 88Google Scholar, also notes: “in some villages, the various planks of all candidates contained a resolution to ‘Support the Communist party and follow Mao Tze-tung,’ illustrat[ing] clearly enough that the Communists are trying to establish not so much a utopian democacy as a support for themselves.”

15. This paragraph is drawn from Selden, , China in Revolution, p. 117Google Scholar; Apter, and Saich, , Revolutionary Discourse, pp. 206, 214Google Scholar; Chen, , Making Revolution, pp. 255–56Google Scholar; and Keating, , Two Revolutions, pp. 134–36.Google Scholar The quoted text refers to Suide and appears in Keating, , p. 136.Google Scholar

16. Zhen, Peng, “Cunmin weiyuanhui zuzhifa shi guojia zhongyao falü zhi yi”Google Scholar (“The organic law of villagers' committees is one of the nation's important basic laws”), speech at the 20th group meeting of the Sixth NPCSC, 16 March 1987, in Peng Zhen tongzhi guanyu cunmin weiyuanhui jumin weiyuanhui de zhongyao jianghua (Important Speeches of Comrade Peng Zhen on Villagers' Committees and Residents' Committees), unpublished compilation (Beijing: Minzhengbu jiceng zhengquan jianshesi, 1990), p. 10. Peng's comments on the 1930s are also alluded to in Foreign Broadcast Information Service: Daily Report (China) (hereafter, FBIS-CHI), No. 79 (1987), p. K10. On Peng and “filtered democracy” in Jin-Cha-Ji, see Potter, Pitman B., From Leninist Discipline to Socialist Legalism (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, 1995), p. 14.Google Scholar

17. See Zhen, Peng, “Report on the work,” pp. 1017–38Google Scholar; Apter, and Saich, , Revolutionary Discourse, pp. 212–13.Google Scholar

18. See Jizhe, Benkan, “Cujin nongcun minzhuhua jianshe de zhongyao falü” (“An important law that promotes rural democratic construction”), Liaowang (Haiwaiban) (Outlook (Overseas Edition)), No. 51 (1987), p. 17.Google Scholar

19. Shi, Tianjian, “Village committee elections in China: institutionalist tactics for democracy,” World Politics Vol. 51, No. 3 (1999), p. 329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Peng said in 1987: “We suffered greatly from failing to construct socialist democracy after the founding of our state. During the Cultural Revolution there was so-called big democracy, but in fact there was no democracy.” Zhen, Peng, “The organic law,” p. 10.Google Scholar

20. Zhen, Peng, “Qunzhong zizhi shi fazhan shehuizhuyi minzhu de zhongyao yi huan”Google Scholar (“Mass autonomy is an important link in the development of socialist democracy”), speech at the chairmanship meeting of the Sixth NPCSC, 23 November 1987, in Important Speeches, p. 25.Google Scholar See also Dingjian, Cai, “Tuijin nongcun de minzhu jianshe” (“Advance democratic construction in the countryside”), Zhengzhi yu falü (Politics and Law), No. 4 (1989), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

21. Xiangyang, Yu, “Villagers' committees,” p. 24Google Scholar; Xiangyang, Yu, “A great invention,” p. 28.Google Scholar On Party branch leadership of VCs, see Kelliher, Daniel, “The Chinese debate over village self-government,” The China Journal, No. 37 (1997), pp. 81–83, 85.Google Scholar

22. Dingjian, Cai, “Advance democratic construction,” p. 18Google Scholar; Xiangyang, Yu, “Villagers' committees,” p. 24Google Scholar; Xiangyang, Yu, “A great invention,” pp. 28–29Google Scholar; Guanglong, Chen, “Guanyu ‘cunmin weiyuanhui zuzhifa’ de youguan wenti tantao” (“Exploration of issues related to the ‘organic law of villagers' committees’”), Fazhi yuekan (Legality Monthly), No. 6 (1987), pp. 39–40.Google Scholar On a similar debate over leadership versus guidance relations in the legislative realm, see O'Brien, Kevin J. and Luehrmann, Laura M., “Institutionalizing Chinese legislatures: trade-offs between autonomy and capacity,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1998), pp. 91–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23. Xiangyang, Yu, “Villagers' committees,” p. 24Google Scholar; Xiangyang, Yu, “A great invention,” pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

24. See Minjie, Deng, “Guangxi shixing cungongsuo de xianshi dingshi” (“Guangxi's experimentation with village administrative offices”), in Zhongguo jiceng zhengquan jianshe yanjiu hui et al. (eds.), Shijian yu sikao (Practice and Reflection) (Shenyang: Liaoning daxue chubanshe, 1989), pp. 126–133.Google Scholar On cungongsuo thwarting the intent of the Organic Law, see White, Tyrene, “Political reform and rural government,” in Davis, Deborah and Vogel, Ezra (eds.), Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 57.Google Scholar

25. Minzhengbu, and fazhiju, Guowuyuan, “Guanyu dui ‘Zhonghua renmin gongheguo cunmin weiyuanhui zuzhifa’ youguan tiaowen xiugai yijian de baogao”Google Scholar (“A report on revisions of some articles of the organic law of villagers' committees of the People's Republic of China”), mimeo (Beijing: Quanguo renda changweihui bangongting, 11 November 1987), p. 2.

26. “Zhao zongli zai shiyiyue waichu shicha qijian dui ruogan juti wenti de zhishi” (“Premier Zhao's instructions on several concrete issues while on inspection tours in November [1986]”), unpublished transcript. Critics of Zhao, however, argued that establishing village administrative offices was unconstitutional and would enervate VCs. They also regarded his proposal to be impractical because the government could not afford to add several million cadres to the state payroll. Interviews, Beijing, January 1997.

27. Shi, , “Village committee,” p. 393.Google Scholar Zhao's alleged conflict with Peng has been mentioned in a number of sources. See, for example, Changsheng, Lin, Dalu nongcun cunmin zizhi zhidu yanjiu (A Study of the Villagers' Self-Govemment System on the Mainland) (Taipei: Xingzhengyuan dalu weiyuanhui, 1995), p. 40.Google Scholar We ourselves wrote that Ziyang, Zhao “in fact had no great sympathy for grassroots democracy.”Google ScholarLi, Lianjiang and O'Brien, Kevin J., “The struggle over village elections,” in Goldman, Merle and MacFarquhar, Roderick (eds.), The Paradox of China's Post-Mao Reforms (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 132.Google Scholar Based on a transcript of Zhao's remarks (rather than our original interviews), we now regard this to be an oversimplification.

28. “Premier Zhao's instructions,” p. 1.Google Scholar

29. Wei, Fa Gong, “Quanguo cunmin weiyuanhui jiben qingkuang”Google Scholar (“Basic information on villagers' committees throughout the country”), mimeo (Beijing: Renda changweihui bangongting, March 1997), p. 1.

30. Dingjian, Cai, “Advance democratic construction,” p. 15Google Scholar; Jinsu, Tang, “Woguo cunweihui jianshe zhuangkuang yu zhanwang” (“Current conditions and prospects for construction of our country's villagers' committees”) Shehuizhuyi yanjiu (Studies in Socialism), No. 6 (1992), p. 42.Google ScholarZhenyao, Wang, “Village committees: the basis for China's democratization,” in Vermeer, Eduard B., Pieke, Frank N. and Chong, Woei Lien (eds.), Cooperative and Collective in China's Rural Development (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), p. 243.Google Scholar

31. Quanguo renda changweihui bangongting, “Qi ge sheng, zizhiqu, zhixiashi zhiding de ‘cunmin weiyuanhui gongzuo jianze’ qingkuang” (“Seven provinces, autonomous regions and cities have enacted working rules on villagers' committees”), mimeo, (Beijing: Quanguo renda changweihui bangongting, 12 01 1987), pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

32. Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, p. 287.Google Scholar

33. Minzhengbu, , Minzhengsi, , “Ge di, ge bumen dui cunmin weiyuanhui zuzhi tiaoli (cao gao) de xiugai yijian” (“Suggestions on revision of the organic law of villagers' committees (draft) from all places and departments”), in Minzhengsi (comp.), Qingkuang fanying (Reflecting the Situation), No. 11 (1985), p. 2Google Scholar. This issue also featured prominently in NPCSC deliberations. See Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 291–95Google Scholar; also, more generally, Choate, , “Local governance,” p. 8.Google Scholar

34. Minzhengbu, , Minzhengsi, , “Suggestions on revision,” pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

35. This paragraph is drawn from FBIS-CHI, No. 79 (1987), pp. K10–12; FBIS-CHI, No. 71 (1987), p. K24; FBIS-CHI, No. 66 (1987), p. K7; FBIS-CHI, No. 68 (1987), p. K17. Two NPCSC members also called for enhancing villagers' “educational and scientific level” before enacting the law. FBIS-CHI, No. 224 (1987), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

36. Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 296–97Google Scholar; Interviews, Beijing, September 1993; also FBIS-CHI, No. 79 (1987), p. K11; FBIS-CHI, No. 71 (1987), p. K24. Quoted text in FBIS-CHI, No. 66 (1987) p. K7; FBIS-CHI, No. 68 (1987), p. K17.

37. White, Tyrene, “Reforming the countryside,” Current History, Vol. 91, No. 566 (1992), pp. 275–76Google Scholar. For the amendment suggested by Law Committee members, see FBIS-CHI, No. 47 (1987), pp. K3–4.Google Scholar

38. Minzhengbu, , Minzhengsi, , “Suggestions on revision,” p. 2.Google Scholar

39. For arguments that bullying and violence were counterproductive, see Kelliher, , “The Chinese debate,” p. 73.Google Scholar

40. Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 296–97Google Scholar. For more on the NPC debates, see O'Brien, Kevin J., “Implementing political reform in China's villages,” The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 32 (1994), pp. 36–39Google Scholar. On the belief that “mass consciousness” was high enough that dutiful cadres would not be voted out, see Kelliher, , “The Chinese debate,” p. 74.Google Scholar

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42. Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 298–302.Google Scholar

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45. Zhen, Peng, “Against coercion and commandism,” p. 20Google Scholar. For excerpts, see Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 294–306Google Scholar. On this more generally, see Epstein, , “Village elections,” p. 411Google Scholar. For Peng's understanding of the relationship between Party leadership, democracy and law, see Potter, , From Leninist Discipline.Google Scholar

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54. See Jinsu, Tang, “Current conditions,” p. 44Google Scholar; Youfu, Sun, “Jianshe zhenzheng lüxing zizhi zhineng de cunweihui” (“Build villagers' committees that genuinely perform the function of self-government”), Zhongguo minzheng, No. 2, (1992), p. 7.Google Scholar Interviews, Beijing, September 1993, January 1997.

55. Xueju, Li, Zhongguo cheng xiang jiceng zhengquan jianshe gongzuo yanjiu (Research on Construction of Grassroots Governance in Urban and Rural China) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe, 1994), pp. 69–72.Google Scholar

56. For a synopsis, see Zhenyao, Wang and Shihao, Wang, “Guanjian zaiyu jishi tiaozheng dang he guojia yu nongmin de zhengzhi guanxi” (“The key is to adjust the political relationship between the party, state and peasants”), Shehui gongzuo yanjiu (Research in Social Work), No. 3 (1990), pp. 12–14.Google Scholar

57. Yihua, Bai, Reform and Exploration, pp. 223–24Google Scholar; also see Xueju, Li, Research on Construction, p. 72.Google Scholar On Peng summoning (unnamed) opponents to his home to complain about foot-dragging on implementation, see White, , “Reforming the countryside,” p. 277Google Scholar; also Shi, , “Village committee,” n. 37.Google Scholar

58. Interviews, Beijing, November 1993, January 1997. On Bo Yibo's role, see also Thurston, Anne F., Muddling Toward Democracy (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1998), pp. 11–12Google Scholar; Choate, , “Local governance,” p. 8Google Scholar; Zhenyao, Wang, “Village committees,” p. 244.Google Scholar

59. Interview, Beijing, January 1997. For Song Ping's remarks, see also Xueju, Li, Research on Construction, p. 73.Google Scholar

60. See “Quanguo cunji zuzhi jianshe gongzuo zuotanhui jiyao” (“Summary report of the national workshop on constructing village-level organizations”), in Minzhengbu jiceng zhengquan jianshesi nongcunchu (comp.), Cunmin zizhi shifan jiangxi ban shiyong jiaocai (Teaching Materials for the Study Croup on Villagers' Autonomy Demonstration) (Shandong: Laixishi niuxibu caiyinchang, 1991), p. 7.Google Scholar The ministry, at this point, was still permitting experimentation with village administrative offices in “economically backward areas where village organizations are paralysed.” See Zhongguo nongcun cunmin zizhi zhidu yanjiu ketizu, Legal System, p. 132.Google Scholar For an argument that these initial elections seem to have improved “congruence” between cadres and villagers, see Manion, Melanie F., “The electoral connection in the Chinese countryside,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 90, No. 4 (1996), pp. 736–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61. Minzhengbu jiceng zhengquan jianshesi, “Guanyu zai quanguo nongcun kaizhan cunmin zizhi shifan huodong de tongzhi” (“Circular on launching demonstration of villagers' self-government nation-wide”), in Teaching Materials, pp. 19–21.Google Scholar For the quoted text, see “Summary report of the national workshop,” pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

62. See Xueju, Li, Research on Construction, pp. 53–55.Google Scholar On the notion of an “ideological marketplace,” see the introduction to this issue of The China Quarterly.

63. On the state's “becoming weak in protecting villagers, disciplining its agents and effectively implementing its policies,” see Xiaobo, Lü, “The politics of peasant burden in reform China,” The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1997), pp. 116, 134Google Scholar; also O'Brien, Kevin J. and Li, Lianjiang, “Selective policy implementation in rural China,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 31, No. 2(1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64. See Zuohan, Zhou, “Guanyu cunmin weiyuanhui jianshe de jidian sikao” (“Some thoughts on the construction of villagers' committees”), Hunan shifan daxue shehui kexue xuebao (Social Science Journal of Hunan Normal University), No. 5 (1987), p. 18Google Scholar; Jinsu, Tang, “Current conditions,” p. 44Google Scholar; Youfu, Sun, “Build villagers' committees,” p. 7.Google Scholar This has also been a major theme for Western analysts. See O'Brien, , “Implementing political reform,” pp. 37–38, 51–58Google Scholar; Kelliher, , “The Chinese debate,” pp. 78–84Google Scholar; Wang, Xu, “Mutual empower ment,” p. 1436.Google Scholar

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66. On Shandong, see Yang Xuejun and Sun Xinmin, “Lishun xiang zhengfu yu cunmin weiyuanhui zhijian de guanxi” (“Rationalize relations between township governments and villagers' committees”), in Practice and Reflection, p. 113.Google Scholar On Shanxi, see Guocai, Zuo and Wenji, Liu, “Cunmin he jiceng ganbu dui cunmin zizhi de fanying ji qi fenxi” (“An analysis of the reaction of villagers and grassroots cadres to villagers' self-government”), Xiangzhen luntan (Township Forum), No. 10 (1991), p. 13.Google Scholar

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68. Personal communication with a researcher from Shandong, October 1998.

69. See Changshan, Ma, “Cunmin zizhi zuzhi jianshe de shidai yiyi jiqi shijian fancha” (“The epoch-making significance and the imperfect practice of building villagers' self-government organizations”), Zhengzhi yu falü, No. 2. (1994), pp. 19–20Google Scholar; Yu, Fan, “Cunweihui xuanju weifa xu jiuzheng” (“Law-breaking activities in village elections must be corrected”), Gaige neican (Internal Reference on Reforms), No. 20 (1998), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

70. Interviews, Beijing, April 1997.

71. Personal communication with a researcher from Beijing, October 1998. On cadre incentive structures, see Shi, , “Village committee;” O'Brien and Li, “Selective policy implementation,” pp. 171–76Google Scholar; Whiting, Susan H., “Contract incentives and market discipline in China's rural industrial sector,” in McMillan, John and Naughton, Barry (eds.), Reforming Asian Socialism (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), pp. 72–77.Google Scholar

72. Interview, Taiyuan, August 1997.

73. Personal communication, October 1998.

74. Interviews, Beijing, December 1995; Fuzhou, July 1997; Taiyuan, September 1997. Other pioneers professed an ideological justification for their actions: they respected the mass line and shared Peng Zhen's vision of how to realize “socialist democracy.” An official in Shandong, for instance, argued that “implementing villagers' self- government is returning power to the people” – a slogan that even an outspoken advocate of self-government in the MoCA deemed “not quite accurate.” See Zhenyao, Wang, “Cunmin zizhi yu cunweihui xuanju”Google Scholar (“Villagers' self-government and the election of villagers' committees”), in Teaching Materials, p. 155.Google Scholar

75. Van Mingfu's closing speech in Minzhengbu jiceng zhengquan jianshesi (comp.), Quanguo cunmin zizhi shifan gongzuo jingyan jiaoliu ji chengxiang jiceng xianjin jiti he xianjin geren biaozhang huiyi wenjian huibian (Collected Documents of the National Conference on Exchanging Experiences of Implementing Villagers' Self-government and Commending Advanced Collectives and Individuals) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe, 1996), quoted text on pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

76. Interviews, Fuzhou, July 1997. On lobbying provincial people's congresses to close election loopholes, see also Shi, , “Village committee,” p. 405.Google Scholar

77. Further evidence of the Fujian civil affairs bureau's influence came in 1997, when the bureau head identified, by name and at a provincial conference, several counties that had failed to hold elections in all their villages. Each county rapidly organized make-up elections. Interviews, Fuzhou, July 1997. On Fujian's place “at the forefront of electoral success,” see Thurston, , Muddling Toward Democracy, pp. 33–34Google Scholar; “Report of the Fifth Mission on Chinese Elections” (Atlanta: Carter Center Working Paper Series, 20 06–3 July 1998), p. 4Google Scholar; Kelliher, , “The Chinese debate,” p. 74.Google Scholar

78. See O'Brien, , “Rightful resistance.”Google Scholar For what we then called “policy-based resistance,” see Li, and O'Brien, , “Villagers and popular resistance,” pp. 40–52.Google Scholar For examples involving election irregularities, see Li, and O'Brien, , “The struggle over village elections,” pp. 137–140Google Scholar; also Howell, , “Prospects for village governance,” pp. 103–104.Google Scholar

79. Interviews, Ji'nan, July 1994; Fuzhou, July 1997. Personal communication with officials from Henan and Hebei, October 1998.

80. See Xingliang, Shao, Suozhi, Cui, Baolin, Meng and Xueliang, Sun, “Yi min wei tian” (“Regarding the people as sovereign”), Xiangzhen luntan, No. 4 (1994), pp. 10–11Google Scholar; Yuan, Tian, “Zhongguo nongcun jiceng de minzhu zhilu” (“The pathway to grassroots democracy in rural China”), Xiangzhen luntan, No. 6 (1993), pp. 3–4Google Scholar; and Yu, Fan, “Law-breaking activities,” p. 14.Google Scholar Survey data from four counties suggests that, when villagers contact officials, about two-fifths of all mentions concern elections. Jennings, M. Kent, “Political participation in the Chinese countryside,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 91, No. 2 (1997), p. 366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Based on a nation-wide survey conducted in 1993, Shi, , “Village committee,” p. 404Google Scholar, reports that more than 5% of rural residents have lodged complaints against election fraud.

81. See Yuan, Tian, “The pathway to grassroots democracy,” pp. 3–4.Google Scholar Interviews, Beijing, July 1994. Needless to say, local officials have a strong incentive to keep villagers uninformed. In a case where complainants demanded to see documents that county leaders claimed restricted their rights and superseded the Organic Law, a county official in Hebei “snorted with contempt and said ‘you are not county officials, why would you think you have the right to read county documents’.” See Nongmin ribao (Shehui wenhua tekan), Farmer's Daily (Special issue on society and culture), 25 07 1998, p. 1.Google Scholar

82. Interviews, Fuzhou, July 1997; and personal communication with officials from Henan and Hebei, October 1998.

83. Personal observation, Beijing, July 1994.

84. Interviews, Beijing, December 1995. However, a 1997 documentary about villagers petitioning for their electoral rights was abruptly cancelled, according to one participant, because of fears it would raise unrealistic expectations. Far Eastern Economic Review, 6 11 1997, pp. 56–58.Google Scholar

85. Interview, Beijing, January 1997. For another version of these remarks, see Zhenyao, Wang, “Zai Hebei sheng di si jie cunmin weiyuanhui huanjie xuanju gongzuo gugan peixun ban shang de jianghua”Google Scholar (“Speech at the training class for key workers in the re-election of villagers' committees in Hebei province”), in Minzhengbu jiceng zhengquan jianshesi nongcunchu (comp.), 1995–1996 Niandu quanguo cunweihui huanjie xuanju ziliao huibian (Collected Materials on the 1995–1996 Re-election of Villagers' Committees Nation-wide) (Beijing: 12 1996), pp. 17–18.Google Scholar For more on Renshou, and a neighbouring county in which a highway levy was successfully collected by elected cadres who had permitted a vote on the tax, see Minxin, Pei, “Creeping democratization,” p. 76Google Scholar; Epstein, , “Village elections,” p. 416Google Scholar; Wang, Xu, “Mutual empowerment,” p. 1439Google Scholar; Shi, , “Village committee,” n. 38.Google Scholar

86. See, respectively, Zhenyao, Wang, “Zhongguo cunmin weiyuanhui de jiben jinzhan yu lilun yiju” (“The basic experience and theoretical grounds of villagers' committees in China”), in Mingtong, Chen and Yongnian, Zheng (eds.), Liang'an jiceng xuanju yu zhengzhi shehui bianqian (Grassroots Elections and Political-Social Transformation on Both Sides of the Strait) (Taipei: Yuedan chubanshe gufen youxian gongsi, 1998), p. 313Google Scholar; Cairang, Duoji, “Jinyibu wanshan cunmin zizhi zhidu ba quanguo cunmin weiyuanhui jianshe gongzuo tuixiang xin de jieduan”Google Scholar (“Continue to perfect the villagers' self-government system and advance the construction of villagers' committees to a new stage”), in Collected Documents, p. 26.Google Scholar

87. Interview, Beijing, February 1997.

88. See Thurston, , Muddling Toward Democracy, pp. iv–v, 45Google Scholar; Epstein, , “Village elections,” pp. 407–408Google Scholar; Choate, , “Local governance,” p. 3.Google Scholar For the MoCA using comments by foreign scholars to counter opposition to its efforts to improve election procedures, see Shi, , “Village committee,” pp. 408–410.Google Scholar

89. For a similar point, see Shi, , “Village committee,” p. 400.Google Scholar

90. On burnishing China's democratic credentials and fending off foreign critiques of its human rights abuses, see Howell, , “Prospects for village self-governance,” pp. 87, 92, 103Google Scholar; Kelliher, , “The Chinese debate,” p. 75.Google Scholar

91. Renmin ribao, 25 09 1998, p. 1.Google Scholar

92. On Li Peng's inspection of Lishu county, see Renmin ribao, 8 07 1998, p. 1.Google Scholar On Li urging publication of the draft, personal communication with rural researchers from Beijing, October 1998.

93. Interview, Beijing, February 1997.

94. For these 1996 and 1997 estimates, see “Carter Center delegation report: village elections in China” (Atlanta: Carter Center Working Paper Series, 2–15 March 1998), p. 9; Howell, , “Prospects for village self-governance,” p. 96Google Scholar; Epstein, , “Village elections,” p. 410.Google Scholar

95. See Renmin ribao, 6 11 1998, p. 1.Google Scholar Duoji Cairang offered a similar estimate in July 1997 while acknowledging that he did not know for certain. Cited in “Carter Center delegation report,” p. 9.Google Scholar

96. Shi, , “Village committee,” p. 386.Google Scholar

97. Liu, X. Drew, “A harbinger of democracy: grassroots elections in rural China,” China Strategic Review, Vol. 2, No. 3 (1997), p. 71.Google Scholar

98. See International Republican Institute, “China's economic future: challenges to U.S. policy,” study paper submitted to the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, 08 1996, p. 3.Google Scholar

99. Choate, , “Local governance,” p. 10.Google Scholar On nomination procedures and their importance, see Elklit, Jorgen, “The Chinese village committee electoral system,” China Information, Vol. 11, No. 4 (1997), pp. 7–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarThurston, Anne, Muddling Toward Democracy, p. 26Google Scholar, has also concluded that “the selection of nominees is a vital, but often overlooked, part of the democratic process.”

100. Cf. Shi, , “Village committee,” p. 386.Google Scholar In Shi's 1990 and 1993 nation-wide surveys about 75% of rural residents reported that VC elections had been held in their village.

101. In some provinces, over 100 residents were surveyed in each village, while in others only a dozen or fewer were drawn for interviews. In order to use individual-level responses to estimate the frequency of village elections, we assume that within each province the same number of respondents was drawn from each village.

102. Insofar as the questionnaire touched on a number of sensitive topics, household registration records were not sought from local public security bureaus. In Fujian and Jiangsu, however, the questionnaire was distributed in purposively selected villages. In both these provinces, after two days of intensive training and mock-interviewing, interviewers were dispatched to pre-selected poor, middle income and rich villages, where they interviewed all available adults from a randomly selected villagers' group. Elsewhere, trained interviewers (most of whom were university or rural high school students) were instructed to return to their home villages and to interview available adults.

103. On these four provinces “dragging their feet in introducing village self-government,” see Chan, Sylvia, “Village self-government and civil society,” in Cheng, Joseph Y. S. (ed.), China Review 1998 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1998), p. 237.Google Scholar Guangdong did not start implementing the Organic Law province-wide until late 1998. Guangxi had the first villagers' committees, but even as recently as November 1995, only 61% of Guangxi's counties had completed converting village administrative offices into VCs. See Collected Documents, p. 136.Google Scholar MoCA officials also consider Yunnan and Hainan to be notable laggards. Interviews, Beijing, January 1997.

104. Tsou, Tang, The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), p. xxiv.Google Scholar

105. On the role of non-democratically elected Party secretaries, see Oi, “Economic development,” pp. 137–39.Google Scholar In over one third of Shanxi's prefectures there have been experiments with subjecting Party members to a popular vote of confidence before permitting them to stand for the Party branch. If this practice was to spread and develop further, the prospects for real village democracy would be greatly enhanced. See Li, Lianjiang, “The two-ballot system in Shanxi: subjecting village party secretaries to a popular vote,” The China Journal, No. 42 (1999), pp. 103–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

106. See the introduction to this issue of The China Quarterly.

107. See Nanfang zhoumo(Southern Weekend), 15 01 1999, p. 2Google Scholar; Yangcheng wanbao (Yangcheng Evening News), 28 04 1999, p. 1.Google Scholar

108. For the initial Chinese report on an unapproved election in Buyun township, Suining city, Sichuan, see Nanfang zhoumo, 15 01 1999, p. 2.Google Scholar For Western reports, see New York Times, 26 01 1999Google Scholar, p. A8; Washington Post Foreign Service, 27 02 1999, p. A17.Google Scholar For criticism of the election, see Fazhi ribao (Legal Daily), 19 01 1999, p. 1.Google Scholar

109. On similar understandings of “democracy” that trace to the May Fourth era and the fengjian tradition, see Keating, , Two Revolutions, pp. 5–6, 248.Google Scholar On the compatibility of state strengthening and grassroots elections in the 1930s and 1940s, see Apter, and Saich, , Revolutionary Discourse, p. 212Google Scholar, Chen, , Making Revolution, pp. 240–41Google Scholar; Keating, , Two Revolutions, p. 133.Google Scholar