The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside

A 1987 law established popularly elected village committees in the Chinese countryside. This article analyzes a unique set of survey data to describe and explain the connection between village leaders and those who choose them, in terms of orientation to the role of the state in the economy. It comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American political science review 1996-12, Vol.90 (4), p.736-748
Main Author: Manion, Melanie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural production
China
China, People's Republic of
Committees
Corporations
Democratization
Economic development
Economic reform
Elections
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Electoral Systems
Electorate
Family Planning
Leaders
Leadership
Local elections
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Local politics
Municipal governments
Peasant class
Peasantry
Peasants
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Political activity
Political aspects
Political candidates
Political change
Political leaders
Political leadership
Political parties
Political science
Politics
Preferences
Public policy
Rural areas
Sampling
Social Action
Social aspects
Socialization
Towns
Villages
Voter turnout
Voters
VOTING
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Summary:A 1987 law established popularly elected village committees in the Chinese countryside. This article analyzes a unique set of survey data to describe and explain the connection between village leaders and those who choose them, in terms of orientation to the role of the state in the economy. It compares positions of village leaders with positions of respondents sampled from their selectorates of township-level leaders and electorates of ordinary villagers. Results of multivariate regression analyses indicate that: (1) village leaders are responsive to both old and newly emerging constituencies, as reflected in significant congruence between village leaders and their selectorates above and electorates below; (2) congruence between village leaders and their electorates is not exclusively the result of shared local environment, informal influence, or socialization but is significantly associated with the electoral process; and (3) the causal mechanism underlying the electoral connection in the Chinese countryside is the familiar one of voter choice.
ISSN:0003-0554
1537-5943
DOI:10.2307/2945839