In his Ballot Box in China: Grassroots Democracy in the Final Major One-Party State, Kerry Brown provides us with a good overview of the tortuous history of China's elections, democracy and civil society, from the late Qing to the present. Through his analysis of the current political debate among the elite, village elections and socio-political conditions at large, the author exposes the deep tension and conflict between the state and society, and the limitations and contradictions in the Communist Party's (CCP) reform agenda that will not relieve that tension and conflict. He consistently argues that the crux of China's political problems is the CCP-dominated unitary system and the unwillingness of the Party leadership to give up its monopoly on power. He concludes that the CCP leadership has to make more fundamental reforms than it is willing to in order to meet the ever-growing demand of a rapidly changing society for social justice and political participation.
In the current debate on political reform among conservatives and reformers of various hues in and outside the CCP, Brown illustrates irreconcilable differences between Hu Jintao's reform agenda, elaborated by a few theoreticians from the Central Party School in Storming the Fortress (Gong jian), and the reforms advocated by Liu Xiaobo, the jailed political dissident and Nobel peace laureate of 2010. Liu and his co-signatories of the Charter 08 demanded “the election of public officials, the separation of powers, independent courts, and a properly elected legislature” (p. 31), while the reforms Hu advocated include “no organized political opposition, and no Western-style parliaments with representative democracy” (p. 39). Brown points out the contradiction in the CCP leadership's position: on one hand, it hopes to achieve legitimacy through transparency, accountability and the rule of law; on the other, it does not want to give up its monopoly on power or even allow a free political discussion.
Brown focuses on China's village elections, believing it holds the key to understanding the challenges to China's democratic reform. He questions the possibilities of decent elections in the one-party system and argues that the CCP will never tolerate genuine competitive elections for fear of losing control. For him, the failure of the original hope for village elections to expand to upper levels indicates that the CCP does not want to adopt liberal democracy – what Brown considers “the internationally accepted model.” He marshals several cases (Xi'an, Beijing and Hubei) to support his point. We also learn from his interview with a leader of an NGO think-tank on public policy that village elections in the past decade, as well as the political situation in China since 2009, have deteriorated.
The Chinese elite's reactions to village elections and political reforms are not as negative as Brown's. Unlike his village election samples (all negatives), Brown seems to have selected a good sample from the elite of middling sort: all the seven members (including one foreigner working in China) are well informed about China's village elections and politics in general. His interpretations of these interviews, however, tend to exaggerate the disagreements among them. For this reader, there is a clear consensus among them about the priority and necessity to maintain social stability and economic development and not to adopt the “Western model of democracy.” Contrary to Brown's argument that China needs a radical political reform in the short- and medium-term, these interviews, at least to this reader, provide strong enough evidence that the conservative reform agenda of the Party reformers probably enjoys broad support among the political conscious of the middle and upper-middle class. This seems to support many observations, scholarly or not, that the Chinese elite as a whole have been de-radicalized by the Tiananmen Incident and by post-Tiananmen market reform. For them, the reforms suggested by Party reformers, for more transparency and accountability, may seem practical and meaningful.
Although its argument could be more balanced, Brown's book is useful for college students as well as general readers who are interested in learning in detail about contemporary Chinese politics. It provides a penetrating analysis of the flaws in the Chinese governing system and the limitations and contradictions in the goals and agenda of the Party reformers.
Grassroots Elections in China, edited by Kevin J. O'Brien and Suisheng Zhao, is a collection of 15 articles originally published in the Journal of Contemporary China from 1999 to 2010. In contrast to Brown's discussion of village elections, which aims to illustrate flaws in China's political system as well as the dilemma of the CCP's reform, this book is technical in approach, focusing on village and local elections, and their impact. There are four articles in part two, including one about impact on the village's structure of power (Guo Zhenglin and Thomas P. Bernstein, 2004), one about women's lack of participation and underrepresentation (Jude Howell, 2006), and two about villagers' participation (Qingshan Tan and Xin Qiushui, 2007; Zongze Hu, 2008). All three articles in part three are about the debate on the relationship between elections and local economy (Tianjian Shi, 1999; Rong Hu, 2005; David Zweig and Chung Siu Fung; 2007). The two articles in part four are about township and local People's Congress elections (Dong Lisheng, 2006; He Junzhi, 2010). The six articles in part one, from the special issue of June 2009, form a forum assessing the current status of village elections and the state of the field.
After over two decades of practice from its experimental stage in 1987 and formal launch in 1998, the status of China's village elections is one of the most intriguing questions for those who are interested in China. Are they genuine? What are their effects on local politics and governance? What are the consequences for national politics? The answers to the first and third questions are relatively clear cut: for the scholars in this collection and most scholars in the field, most elections are probably genuine; but they have thus far failed to produce democratic consequences for national politics. As O'Brien states in the introduction, “they may be legitimating the current regime rather than serving as a harbinger of systemic change” (p. xi). In fact, contrary to Kerry Brown's gut feeling of “immense impending change” in China, O'Brien points out that the view – “persistent authoritarianism is the most likely medium-term outcome” – “has been edging from consensus to near unanimity” (p. xiv, fn. 4).
The impact of elections on village politics has been much studied in recent years although no conclusions have been reached. Consistent with the mainstream view that China's village elections have become increasingly close to the international standard, most scholars see positive consequences, including a positive correlation between elections and governance, better relations between cadres and villagers, between villages and townships, and more transparency and accountability for village government. Kevin O'Brien, one of the best known scholars in the field, who argued until recently for the empowerment effect of direct elections, diverges from the mainstream. In the central piece for part one, “Assessing village elections,” he and Rongbin Han point out a dichotomy between elections and governance: on one hand, great improvement has been made in these elections; on the other hand, the quality of governance remains stubbornly low. They propose to shift the focus of the study from elections to the institutional context of village committees to seek explanations of poor governance.
Although they do not directly challenge O'Brien and Han's assessment, the other five scholars in the forum show disagreement in various ways. Qingshan Tan is less optimistic about the status of the elections, calling for more work to standardize them, while Gunter Schubert suggests shifting the focus of study from village to legitimacy of the local state that includes township and county. Melanie Manion, John James Kennedy and Björn Alpermann, who see more positive correlations between improved village elections and of governance, point out various positive effects and consequences in village, local and even national politics. This indicates a lively debate and suggests continued diversity of views in the field.
The field has been dominated by political scientists using quantitative studies based on surveys. That domination will continue because quantitative studies are necessary to provide us with broad pictures of village elections in a locality or region, if not nationwide. However, O'Brien, Manion and Schubert also call for more and better case studies like the one by Zongze Hu in this volume. O'Brien invites sociologists to “illustrate the effects of voting on various social groups” and historians to study “the antecedents of today's elections” (p. xii). He believes that “time has come for more comparison, both domestically and internationally” (p. xiii).
The merits of the book include in-depth study on a wide range of topics, timely assessment of the current status of village elections, and assessment of the state of the field, including methods, approaches and future directions. It is recommended for graduate students and scholars interested in close examination of China's village and local politics.
