Implementing political reform in China's villages

Abstract

This article examines the ongoing tug-of-war between the centre and lower levels by analysing the implementation of the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees. The law provides a framework for reorganizing China's villages and rejuvenating local political institutions and is the centrepiece of a central program designed to enhance cadre accountability and village autonomy while reaffirming state control over the countryside. However, some villagers' committees scarcely function and many operate in a fashion quite unlike that prescribed by the Organic Law. The author suggests that success has largely hinged on the amount of bureaucratic attention a village has received and on how villagers and local cadres have perceived their interests and understood their resources in relation to each other and to higher levels. In many localities, assorted forms of cadre resistance and villager skepticism have been important causes of patchy implementation, and balancing demands both to complete state tasks and to increase popular participation have frequently impinged on the interests of cadres and villagers for separate but reinforcing reasons. -from Author