Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:35:13.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Village Leaders, Dual Brokerage and Political Order in Rural China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2020

Xi Chen Open the ORCID record for Xi Chen [Opens in a new window]  and
Jingping Liu
Xi Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Government and Public Administration, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Email: [email protected].
Jingping Liu*
Affiliation:
Department of Government and Public Administration, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
*
Email: [email protected] (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Drawing on an ethnographic study in two counties in Hunan province, this article explores how political brokerage has contributed to political order in China by facilitating contentious and non-contentious bargaining between the government and ordinary people. To account for the changing role of village leaders in rural politics, the article develops a concept of dual brokerage. This concept not only recognizes formal and informal linkages between village leaders and the two principals – the government and the community of villagers – but also underscores the interactivity between the linkages. We contend that despite the tensions between village leaders’ roles as state agents and as village representatives, these two roles in the reform era tend to be mutually beneficial. Under such an institutional configuration, village leaders in China in the reform era have strong incentives to act as dual agents and can make policy implementation more flexible and the use of state force more moderate. A comparison between the trilateral interactions before and after the tax reform in 2005 confirms that whether village leaders can effectively act as dual agents has a significant impact on the quality of rural governance in China.

摘要

摘要

本文利用在湖南两县的人类志研究，探询政治经纪模式如何在中国通过促成抗争性和非抗争性博弈而增进政治稳定。为了描述和解释村干部角色的变迁，本文阐述了双重经纪的概念。这一概念不仅承认村干部分别与村民和政府之间的联系，而且强调这两种联系相互关联。村干部作为村民代理人的身份与他们作为政府代理人的身份之间虽然存在张力，同时也互相促进。村民的信任有利于村干部行使政府代理人的角色，政府对村干部的信任也有利于村干部代理村民利益。改革年代的制度框架赋予村干部很强的充当双重代理的积极性。村干部在尽力维持这一角色的过程中，使得政策的实施较为温和灵活。本文对 2005 年农业税改革前后的比较，证实农村治理的质量很大程度上取决于村干部是否能够有效地扮演双重代理人的角色。本研究阐释的双重经纪的概念对于理解人大代表和群团组织等居于国家社会之间的个人及组织在中国政治过程中的角色也有参考意义。

Keywords

village leadersinformal institutionsrural governancepolitical brokeragecontentious bargainingChina村干部非正式制度农村治理政治经纪抗争性博弈中国
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 247 , September 2021 , pp. 662 - 680
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Both authors contributed equally to this article.

References

Bernstein, Thomas P., and Lü, Xiaobo. 2003. Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, An. 2007. “The failure of organizational control: changing Party power in the Chinese countryside.” Politics and Society 35(1), 145–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Feng. 2003. “Between the state and labour: the conflict of Chinese trade unions’ double identity in market reform.” The China Quarterly 176, 1006–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Guidi, and Chun, Tao. 2004. Zhongguo nongmin diaocha Vol.1 (Stories about Chinese Peasants Vol.1). Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House.Google Scholar
Chen, Xi. 2012. Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Xi. 2017. “Origins of informal coercion in China.” Politics and Society 45(1), 67–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Xi, and Xu, Ping. 2011. “From resistance to advocacy: political representation for disabled people in China.” The China Quarterly 207, 649–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deng, Yanhua, and O'Brien, Kevin J.. 2013. “Relational repression in China: using social ties to demobilize protesters.” The China Quarterly 215, 533–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duara, Prasenjit. 1991. Culture, Power, and the State: Rural North China, 1900–1942. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Foster, Kenneth W. 2002. “Embedded within state agencies: business associations in Yantai.” The China Journal 47, 41–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Xuefeng. 2010. “Lun nongcun jiceng zuzhi de jiegou yu gongneng” (On the structure and functions of the grassroots organizations in rural China). Tianjin xingzheng xueyuan xuebao 12(6), 45–61.Google Scholar
Kennedy, John James. 2007. “From the tax-for-fee reform to the abolition of agricultural taxes: the impact on township governments in north-west China.” The China Quarterly 189, 43–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, John James, Rozelle, Scott and Shi, Yaojiang. 2004. “Elected leaders and collective land: farmers’ evaluation of village leaders’ performance in rural China.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 9, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kung, James, Cai, Yongshun and Sun, Xiulin. 2009. “Rural cadres and governance in China: incentive, institution and accountability.” The China Journal 62, 61–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan, and Zhang, Yonghong. 2013. “The power of instability: unraveling the microfoundations of bargained authoritarianism in China.” American Journal of Sociology 118(6), 1475–1508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Lianjiang. 2002. “Elections and popular resistance in rural China.” China Information 16(1), 89–107.Google Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 1996. “The electoral connection in the Chinese countryside.” American Political Science Review 90(4), 736–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 2006. “Democracy, community, trust: the impact of elections in rural China.” Comparative Political Studies 39(3), 301–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J. 2001. “Villagers, elections, and citizenship in contemporary China.” Modern China 27(4), 407–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 1999. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, Benjamin, and Michelson, Ethan. 2018. “Village dispute mediation in China, 2002–10: an enduring institution amid rural change.” Asian Journal of Law and Society 5(2), 433–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shue, Vivienne. 1990. The Reach of the State: Sketches of the Chinese Body Politic. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Stovel, Katherine, and Shaw, Lynette. 2012. “Brokerage.” Annual Review of Sociology 38, 139–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun, Liping, and Guo, Yuhua. 2000. “‘Ruan ying jian shi’: zhengshi quanli feizhengshi yunzuo de guocheng fenxi – huabei B zhen shouliang de ge'an yanjiu” (“With both carrot and stick”: an analysis of the informal exercise of formal authority – a case study of grain procurement in a township in northern China). Qinghua shehuixue pinglun, special issue, 21–46.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2005. Trust and Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, Lily. 2007. Accountability without Democracy: Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unger, Jonathan. 1989. “State and peasant in post-revolution China.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 17(1), 114–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Juan. 2017. The Sinews of State Power: The Rise and Demise of the Cohesive Local State in Rural China. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Yi. 2007. Xiaozhen xuanxiao: yige xiangzhen zhengzhi yunzuo de yanyi yu chanshi (A Bustling Small Town: Stories about the Politics of a Township). Beijing: Sanlian shudian.Google Scholar
Xu, Yiqing, and Yao, Yang. 2015. “Informal institutions, collective action, and public investment in rural China.” American Political Science Review 109(2), 371–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Weiguo. 1999. “Implementation of state family planning programmes in a northern Chinese village.” The China Quarterly 157, 202–230.Google Scholar
Zhang, Wu. 2015. “Leadership, organization and moral authority: explaining peasant militancy in contemporary China.” The China Journal 73, 59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar