TOC | Summary | Foreword | Introduction | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Notes | Acknowledgments | Author

Muddling toward Democracy Political Change in Grassroots China

Foreword

There is a Chinese expression for the coexistence of contradictory forces in a given entity: “To sleep in the same bed while dreaming different dreams.” Democratic elections in China’s villages coexisting with a one-party dictatorship are such unlikely bedfellows. Even when the elections are limited, localized, and orchestrated by the dictatorship, the coexistence of popular, competitive voting and one-party control still strikes most Westerners as peculiar. Such contradictions, however, reflect life in today’s People’s Republic of China, a country being pulled in different directions by complex and competing forces: modernization and tradition, socialism and capitalism, centralization and localism, order and chaos. Contemporary China has a tendency to defy expectations and generalizations. For those of us in the West whose job or interest it is to understand the People’s Republic and to factor its likely future development into our own plans, it is imperative that we grasp the idiosyncracies and complexity of the world’s most populous—and potentially most economically formidable and politically explosive—nation.

     To this end, Anne Thurston’s vivid account of the practice of village elections in China is an invaluable resource. A longtime student of China and a frequent visitor there, Thurston understands better than most the need to leave stereotypes at home when exploring the People’s Republic, and instead to bring an open mind, an ear attuned to cultural nuance, and a journalist’s eye for assessing what is really going on beneath surface appearances. Thus equipped, she has traveled several times to China to investigate village-level democracy and has returned with fresh information and rich insights. In this report, she offers a fascinating, first-hand look at village elections and village life in China today. Her account will provoke much speculation about the longer-term implications of Communist Party experimentation with local democracy for the party’s own future.

     In early 1994, Thurston met Wang Zhenyao, a key official in the implementation of the nationally directed policy of holding elections for village assemblies and village committees. Wang belongs to the reform-minded generation that came of age during the Cultural Revolution—although, as the author explains, it is not only the reform-minded who have championed these elections. Confusingly, the policy of local democracy has been promoted, both before and since the violent suppression of mass demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989, by aging conservatives fearful that the local party cadres had lost touch with the peasants and might further discredit Communist Party rule. Their hope was that the revolutionary tradition of the “mass line” could be revived with local elections—in contrast to the Maoist tradition of periodic “mass movements” and chaotic political purges.

     Between January 1995 and March 1997, Thurston observed three rounds of village elections in nearly twenty villages spread throughout three provinces: Sichuan, in China’s southwest heartland; Jilin, in the northeast; and Fujian, on the coast opposite Taiwan. As Muddling toward Democracy makes abundantly clear, at every turn Thurston encountered remarkable diversity in the character and extent of electoral democracy as practiced in today’s China. She also saw great disparities among and within provinces in the type of leadership, economic development, and sense of community to be found in individual villages; indeed, even if her study did not mention democratization, this assessment would merit publication for providing an all-too-rare glimpse of contemporary life in China’s villages, which seem as various as they are numerous.

     Despite this diversity, Thurston has drawn several conclusions from her field research. “First, the best elections are very good indeed, recognizably democratic even with their distinctly Chinese characteristics. Second, enormous organizational efforts will be required to expand competitive elections into all of China’s villages. Third, a core of people at the Ministry of Civil Affairs is determined to ensure that . . . the best examples of village elections become commonplace. . . . Fourth, key people at the highest reaches of the party publicly support the ministry’s goals.”

     Muddling toward Democracy concludes with a recommendation that the United States support China’s ongoing democratic experiment. The author counsels that, for the most part, assistance should not be provided directly by the U.S. government, and should instead be channeled through nongovernmental organizations suited to low-key, low-level cooperative efforts. This advice seems wise, both because of U.S. domestic considerations and because of the risk that high-profile support for democratization by the United States would weaken political backing in China for the process. China, as we have noted, is today being pulled in different directions by contradictory forces. Should the “Middle Kingdom” fracture under these strains, the results would be devastating—not just for China itself, nor just for East Asia, but for the entire international community. “These are dangerous times for China,” the author remarks, “and therefore dangerous for us all.” As Americans, we are idealistically inclined to support democratization whenever and wherever it occurs; our national interest also argues in favor of supporting political reform in China, on the grounds that we are likely to have more harmonious relations with a popularly supported government. But neither our idealism nor our national interest will be served if we embark on a course that threatens the stability of the Chinese body politic. Thurston allows the reader to draw broader lessons from her account. One such lesson would appear to be that while we are right to express our support for democratization in China, it would be counterproductive to insist on it.

     The reader is sure to find Muddling toward Democracy an important contribution to the ongoing debate in the United States about U.S.-Sino relations. Highly illuminating, sometimes surprising, and invariably colorful and compelling, this report is likely to become required reading for those who wish to understand what is happening at China’s grassroots. As such, it complements other recent reports issued by the United States Institute of Peace that focus on what is happening at the “rice roots” level of today’s China. For instance, the Institute has just published The China Challenge in the Twenty-First Century, in which former Institute fellow Chen Jian examines the foreign policy behavior of the People’s Republic from the perspective of those inside the country. The Institute has also supported significant work on broader trends in the East Asian region, as reflected in two recent Special Reports: Beyond the Asian Financial Crisis, published in April 1998; and North Korea’s Decline and China’s Strategic Dilemmas, issued in October 1997.

     Like these Special Reports, Muddling toward Democracy seeks to provide foreign observers with the information and the analytical tools necessary to fashion a far-sighted policy toward a country that is full of surprises, tensions, and possibilities—and of enduring significance for America’s interests.

TOC | Summary | Foreword | Introduction | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Notes | Acknowledgments | Author

Home  |  Jobs  |  FAQs   |  Contact Us  |  Directions  |  Privacy Policy  |  Site Map

United States Institute of Peace  --  1200 17th Street NW  -- Washington, DC 20036
(202) 457-1700 (phone)  --  (202) 429-6063 (fax)
Send Feedback