The Face of "Grassroots Democracy" in Rural China: Real Versus Cosmetic Elections

Asian Survey ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
John James Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Grassroots Democracy ◽  
The Face

scholarly journals Factors Influencing the Accessibility and Reliability of Health Information in the Face of the COVID-19 Outbreak—A Study in Rural China

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhu ◽  
Zixuan Peng ◽  
Shaohui Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Rural Residents ◽  
The Face ◽  
Information Channels

Introduction: Rural residents have been shown to have limited access to reliable health information and therefore may be at higher risks for the adverse health effects of the COVID-19. The aim of this research is 2-fold: (1) to explore the impacts of demographic factors on the accessibility of health information; and (2) to assess the impacts of information channels on the reliability of health information accessed by rural residents in China during the COVID-19 outbreak.Methods: Mixed methods research was performed to provide a relatively complete picture about the accessibility and reliability of health information in rural China in the face of the COVID-19. A quantitative research was conducted through surveying 435 Chinese rural residents and a qualitative study was performed through collecting materials from one of the most popular social media application (WeChat) in China. The logistic regression techniques were used to examine the impacts of demographic factors on the accessibility of health information. The Content analysis was performed to describe and summarize qualitative materials to inform the impacts of information channels on the reliability of health information.Results: Age was found to positively associate with the accessibility of health information, while an opposite association was found between education and the accessibility of health information. Rural residents with monthly income between 3,001 CNY and 4,000 CNY were the least likely to access health information. Rural residents who worked/studied from home were more likely to access health information. Meanwhile, health information tended to be derived from non-official social media channels where rumors and unverified health information spread fast, and the elderly and less-educated rural residents were more likely to access health misinformation.Conclusions: Policy makers are suggested to adopt efficient measures to contain the spread of rumors and unverified health information on non-official social media platforms during the outbreak of a pandemic. More efforts should be devoted to assist the elderly and less-educated rural residents to access reliable health information in the face of a pandemic outbreak.

scholarly journals How “Peasant Apartments” Could Undermine Rural Governance in China: Spatial Realignment, Moral Reconfiguration and Local Authority

2019 ◽  
Vol 242 ◽  
pp. 376-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Yep ◽  
Ying Wu
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Political Challenge ◽  
The Face ◽  
To Come ◽  
Residential Pattern ◽  
China Today

AbstractA seismic change in the residential pattern is emerging in rural China today: traditional rural houses have been rapidly erased from the face of the countryside with large numbers of peasants being relocated to modern high-rise buildings. This process of “peasant elevation” has had a monumental impact on rural China. It redefines the entitlement to land use by the rural citizenry and negotiations for a new regime of property rights concerning land administration, while, most importantly, it undermines the position of the local state in rural China, whose authority is an aggregation of three distinctive elements: coercive power inherent in the state apparatus, control over economic resources, and resonance with local morality. Based on original data collected in Chongqing, Nantong and Dezhou, this paper argues that the comprehensive uprooting of the Chinese peasantry from the land and the resulting complications have caused moral disorientation among the relocated peasants and fragmentation of local authority. The difficulty in establishing community identity in the new setting has further undermined local governance. This may in turn trigger a wave of social and political tensions that may eventually turn out to be a major political challenge to the regime for years to come.

The ‘4Project’, Suning County, Hebei: Enabling Rural People to Come Together and Re-Organize

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-273
Author(s):  
Zheng Ruoting
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Rural Society ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Local People ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Grassroots Democracy ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
To Come

Abstract Faced with the countless problems of rural society, in 2008 Suning County began to ponder and explore ways to solve these rural problems right at the root. Suning spent time and effort putting thought into the practicalities of working in the countryside, and combined this with the frame of reference gleaned through useful experiences of solving the ‘Three Rurals’ (the state’s term for three major issues troubling rural China). On this basis, Suning County devised the 4Project – a four-fold approach – to bring rural people back together, encouraging them once again to organize. Through development of grassroots Party organizations, grassroots democracy organizations, comprehensive stability maintenance organizations, and economic cooperatives, the local people, who had been scattered and lacking unity, were brought into these organizations.

Capitalism without Capital: Capital Conversion and Market Making in Rural China

2014 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. 693-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueguang Zhou ◽  
Yun Ai
Keyword(s):  
Economic Sociology ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Financial Capital ◽  
Market Making ◽  
The Face ◽  
Capital Conversion ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities

AbstractSituated in an agricultural township in northern China, this study examines the rise of produce markets in rural China in the face of a chronic shortage of financial capital. Drawing on theoretical ideas in economic sociology, we explicate the mechanisms of gift exchange and credit taking and the conditions under which these mechanisms are used to mobilize financial capital and to facilitate market transactions in the absence of financial capital. We illustrate these issues and ideas using our fieldwork research on different produce markets and entrepreneurial activities.

Varieties of Electoral Institutions in China's Grassroots Democracy: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence from Rural China

2012 ◽  
Vol 210 ◽  
pp. 482-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Lu
Keyword(s):  
Regression Model ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Comparable Data ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Grassroots Democracy ◽  
Over Time

AbstractGrassroots democracy has been practised in rural China for more than a decade. However, despite the existence of a mountain of evidence, evaluations of the quality of China's rural grassroots democracy, particularly electoral institutions, have unfortunately been inconclusive, due to primary reliance on case studies and local surveys. Moreover, the lack of comparable data over time prohibits effective studies on the evolution of grassroots democracy in Chinese villages. This article tries to provide some systematic information on how village committee elections are practised and have evolved in China, using two village surveys based on comparable national probability samples, implemented in 2002 and 2005 respectively. It further explores the validity of some key theories in contemporary literature on the uneven implementation of village committee elections in China with the help of an integrated regression model.

Rural politics in transitional China: Urban–rural disparity, national integration, and grassroots democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 494-504
Author(s):  
Zhenhua Huang
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Rural Politics ◽  
Grassroots Democracy ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
The Government ◽  
Transitional China

This essay reviews three books by Xu Yong that examine three critical historical processes of political transformation in rural China: the politicization of society due to urban–rural disparity, the government’s efforts to encourage political integration in rural areas, and the development of rural grassroots democracy. Urban–rural disparity has been a structural characteristic of China’s politicized society since the establishment of the monarchy. The analysis of this inequality focuses on uncovering grassroots society (as opposed to Chinese society’s upper echelons) and examining its evolutionary logic. Since 1949, China has faced the historical task of building a modern state. The government aggressively entered the countryside through large-scale political mobilization and social integration with the Chinese Communist Party as the driving force. The goal was to create a strongly integrated communist nation. Since the 1980s, the Chinese countryside has not only experienced economic liberalization but also received an opportunity for political democratization through the creation and practice of village autonomy. Self-government in autonomous villages has provided Chinese peasants with a wide range of democratic rights. In addition, calls for transformation and promotion of the democratic paradigm have increased. Xu’s three books effectively present many critical aspects of China’s rural political transformations. However, questions remain concerning the consistency of the theory and the accuracy of the analysis, which leaves room for further research and discussion.

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