Yang Zhong - Political Culture and Participation in Rural China

Despite China's rapid urbanization and industrialization, most Chinese still live in the vast countryside or have rural household registration. Although there was significant economic improvement in rural areas in the 1980s, the rural economy has been stagnating or deteriorating since then, and the book argues that the ruralurban income gap is giving rise to the potential for political instability throughout China. This book, based on extensive original research including interview fieldwork in rural areas, examines the nature of political culture and participation in rural China, discussing issues such as the support, or lack of it, for democratic values; levels of political interest; the ways in which Chinese peasants interact with village and local officials; subjective factors that motivate them to vote (or not to vote) in village elections; and rural people's views on market-oriented economic reforms, local and national government, and the Communist Party. The book argues that although hitherto peasants riots, sit-ins and demonstrations have been localized and uncoordinated, they are frequent, and have the potential to cause serious political crises for China's rulers. It concludes by considering the future political development of China's vast countryside.

Yang Zhong is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, USA, and a Changjiang Scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is the author of Local Government and Politics in China: Challenges from Below.

China Policy Series
Series Editor Zheng Yongnian

China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham, UK

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China's Rise in the World ICT Industry
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China's Local Administration
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The Chinese Communist Party as Organizational Emperor
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Yang Zhong

This edition published 2012
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 Yang Zhong

The right of Yang Zhong to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhong, Yang, 1960
Political culture and participation in rural China / Yang Zhong.

p. cm. -- (China policy series ; 22)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-415-68658-7 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-203-15000-9 (ebook) 1. Political participation--China--Case studies. 2. Peasants-- Political activity--China--Case studies. 3. Local government--China. 4. Local elections--China. 5. Democratization--China. 6. Political culture---China. I. Title.

JS7357.A15Z47 2012 306.20951091734--dc23

2011024292

ISBN13: 978-0-415-68658-7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-15000-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Bookcraft Limited, Stroud, Gloucestershire

Figure

Tables

During the writing of this book I have been helped by so many people and organizations, without whom this study would not have been possible. First, I want to thank Professor Jie Chen, my collaborator in the southern Jiangsu survey project. We have worked together for many years and published a number of journal articles based on the survey project. My gratitude also goes to the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School of the University of Tennessee who provided generous financial help for my field research trips to China and for granting me sabbatical leave to work on this book. My thanks also go to Professor Yongnian Zheng, Editor of the China Policy Series for Routledge Press, for including this study in the series. Peter Sowden, Editor at Routledge, and Emma Davis are some of the nicest people with whom I have worked. They deserve the credit for making the book look so good.

I would like to thank the following publishers and copyright holders for permission to reprint work in this book: Chapter 2 was adapted from my article Democratic Values among Chinese Peasantry: An Empirical Study, published in China: An International Journal (Vol. 3, No. 2, 2005), reprinted with kind permission of the National University of Singapore Press. Chapter 4 was adapted from my article Political Interest in Rural Southern Jiangsu Province in China in