Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:19:44.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political Participation in the Chinese Countryside

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

M. Kent Jennings
M. Kent Jennings*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The topic of grass-roots participation in China has acquired special interest in light of the local economic and political reforms introduced in the post-Mao period. This paper explores some major modes of participation, issues motivating participation, and the determinants of participation. The findings are based on interviews held in early 1990 with probability samples drawn from four countryside counties. The analysis emphasizes three modes of “autonomous” participation: cooperative actions, voicing opinions to cadres, and contacting representatives. Participants pursued selective and collective goods and were strategic in combining particular modes with particular problem areas. Determinants of participation included traditional resource model predictors but also unique predictors in the form of holding a second occupation, being a party member, and residing in a specific county. Local activists appear to be using new and traditional methods in moving toward more proactive, collective, and strategic forms of behavior.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 91 , Issue 2 , June 1997 , pp. 361 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bahry, Donna, and Silver, Brian D.. 1990. “Soviet Citizen Participation on the Eve of Democratization.” American Political Science Review 84(09):821–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Samuel H., Kaase, Max, et al. 1979a. Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Barnes, Samuel H., Kaase, Max, et al. 1979b. Political Action: An Eight-Nation Study, 1973–1976. ICPSR Codebook 7777. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.Google Scholar
Bauer, John, Feng, Wang, Riley, Nancy E., and Xiaohua, Zhao. 1992. “Gender Inequality in Urban China.” Modern China 18(07):333–70.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Thomas P. 1992. “Ideology and Rural Reform: The Paradox of Contingent Stability.” In State and Society in China: the Consequences of Reform, ed. Rosenbaum, Arthur Lewis. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Brady, Henry E., and Kaplan, Cynthia. 1995. “Civil Society and Political Participation in Estonia and the United States: A Comparative Test of the Civic Voluntarism Model.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Brugger, Bill, and Reglar, Stephen. 1994. Politics, Economy, and Society in Contemporary China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Burns, John P. 1988. Political Participation in Rural China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
DiFranceisco, Wayne, and Gitelman, Zvi. 1984. “Soviet Political Culture and “Covert Participation” in Policy Implementation.” American Political Science Review 78(09):603–21.Google Scholar
Eldersveld, Samuel J., Jackson, John E., Jennings, M. Kent, Lieberthal, Kenneth, Manion, Melanie, Oksenberg, Michael, Chen, Zhefu, He, Hefeng, Shen, Mingming, Xie, Qingkui, Yang, Ming, and Yang, Fengchun. 1996. Four-County Study of Chinese Local Government and Political Economy, 1990 [Computer file]. ICPSR version. Study #6805. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan/Beijing, China: Beijing University [producers], 1994. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1996.Google Scholar
Entwistle, Barbara, Henderson, Gail E., Short, Susan E., Bouma, Jill, and Fengying, Zhai. 1995. “Gender and Family Business in Rural China.” American Sociological Review 60(02):36–57.Google Scholar
Falkenheim, Victor C. 1987. “Citizen and Group Politics in China: An Introduction.” In Citizens and Groups in Contemporary China, ed. Falkenheim, Victor C.. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Fewsmith, Joseph. 1994. Dilemmas of Reform in China. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Friedman, Edward, Pickowicz, Paul G., and Selden, Mark. 1991. Chinese Village, Socialist State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Henderson, Gail. 1993. “Survival Guide to Survey Research in China.” China Exchange News 21(Spring):23–25, 33.Google Scholar
Heunks, Felix. 1989. “From Personal to Political.” In Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies, ed., Jennings, M. Kent, van Deth, Jan, et al.Berlin: DeGruyter.Google Scholar
Huang, Shu-min. 1989. The Spiral Road: Change in a Chinese Village through the Eyes of a Communist Party Leader. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. Bruce. 1991. “Elections in China.” Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 25(01):171–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, van Deth, Jan, et al. 1989a. Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies. Berlin: DeGruyter.Google Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, van Deth, Jan, et al. 1989b. Political Action II, 1979–1981. ICPSR Codebook 9581. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang, and O'Brien, Kevin J.. 1996. “Villagers and Popular Resistance in Contemporary China.” Modern China 22(01):28–61.Google Scholar
Liu, Alan P. L. 1996. Mass Politics in the People's Republic. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 1993. Retirement of Revolutionaries in China: Public Relations, Social Norms, Private Interests. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 1994. “Survey Research in the Study of Contemporary China: Learning from Local Surveys.” China Quarterly 139(09):741–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 1996. “The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside.” American Political Science Review 90(12):736–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J. 1994a. “Implementing Political Reform in China's Villages.” Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 23(07):33–59.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J. 1994b. “Agents and Remonstrators: Role Accumulation by Chinese People's Congress Deputies.” China Quarterly 138(06):359–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J. 1996. “Rightful Resistance.” World Politics 49(10):31–55.Google Scholar
Oi, Jean C. 1989. State and Peasant in Contemporary China: the Political Economy of Village Government. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Oi, Jean. 1990. “The Fate of the Collective after the Commune.” In Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen, ed. Davis, Deborah and Vogel, Ezra F.. Cambridge, MA: Council of East Asian Studies, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Pei, Minxin. 1994. From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. 1994. “Trends in the Study of Chinese Politics: State-Society Relations.” China Quarterly 139(09):704–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Bingham. 1982. Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and Violence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rosen, Stanley. 1992. “Students and the State in China: The Crisis in Ideology and Organization.” In State & Society in China: the Consequences of Reform, ed. Rosenbaum, Arthur Lewis. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and Hansen, John Mark. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Rozelle, Scott. 1994. “Decision-Making in China's Rural Economy: The Linkages between Village Leaders and Farm Households.” China Quarterly 137(03):99–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, Mingming. 1994. “Policy-Driven Elite Transformation and Its Outcomes: A Case Study of the New Local Elites in China.” Ph.D. diss. University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Shi, Tianjian. 1996. “Survey Research in China.” In Research in Micropolitics, Vol. V, New Directions in Political Psychology, ed. Delli-Carpini, Michael X., Huddy, Leonie, and Shapiro, Robert Y.. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Shi, Tianjian. N.d. Political Participation in Beijing: A Survey Study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Shue, Vivienne. 1988. The Reach of the State. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., and Brody, Richard A.. 1977. “Coping: The Ethic of Self-Reliance.” American Journal of Political Science 21(08):501–21.Google Scholar
State Statistical Yearbook of China, 1994. 1994. Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House.Google Scholar
Thomassen, Jacques. 1989. “Economic Crisis, Dissatisfaction, and Protest.” In Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies ed., Jennings, M. Kent, van Deth, Jan, et al.Berlin: DeGruyter.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Nie, Norman H., and Kim, Jae-on. 1978. Participation and Political Equality: A Seven-Nation Comparison. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
White, Tyrene. 1990. “Political Reform and Rural Government.” In Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen, ed. Davis, Deborah and Vogel, Ezra F.. Cambridge, MA: Council of East Asian Studies, Harvard University.Google Scholar
White, Tyrene. 1992. “Reforming the Countryside.” Current History 91(09):273–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, Alan S., and West, Darrell M.. 1985. “The Political Bases of Citizen Contacting: A Cross-National Analysis.” American Political Science Review 79(03):117–31.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.