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The Causes and Effects of the Development of Semi-Competitive Central European University The Causes and Effects of the Development of Semi-Competitive Elections at the Township Level in China since the 1990s By Hairong Lai Thesis submitted in fulfillment for the degree of PhD, Department of Political Science, Central European University, Budapest, January 2008 Supervisor Zsolt Enyedi (Central European University) External Supervisor Maria Csanadi (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) CEU eTD Collection PhD Committee Tamas Meszerics (Central European University) Yongnian Zheng (Nottingham University) 1 Contents Summary..........................................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................6 Statements........................................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................8 1.1 The literature on elections in China ....................................................................................8 1.2 Theories on democratization .............................................................................................15 1.3 Problems in the existing literature on semi-competitive elections in China .....................21 1.4 Agenda of the current research..........................................................................................26 Chapter 2: Concepts, Cases, Data, and Methods .......................................................................28 2.1 Concepts............................................................................................................................28 2.2 Methods.............................................................................................................................33 2.3 Data and Case Selection....................................................................................................41 Appendix 1 to chapter 2:.........................................................................................................44 Appendix 2 to chapter:............................................................................................................47 Chapter 3: Township Semi-Competitive Elections.....................................................................49 3.1 What is a township and how much authority does a township have? ...............................49 3.2 How much discretion does a township mayor (party secretary, or vice-mayor) have?.....61 3.3 How is a township mayor appointed? ............................................................................62 3.4 What are the semi-competitive elections for township mayors?.......................................66 3.5 When and where were the first cases of semi-competitive elections? How widely did the new practices spread?..............................................................................................................86 3.6 Who initiated the reform? .................................................................................................89 Chapter 4: Why are There Semi-Competitive Elections at the Township Level? ...................97 4.1 Testing modernization theory............................................................................................97 4.2 Reasons, as reported by the interviewees........................................................................103 4.3 How social problems and economic underdevelopment translate into election reform..112 4.4 The structure under which local party officials make self-interested calculations..........119 4.5 The changing systemic background against which the township semi-competitive elections have been introduced .............................................................................................132 Chapter 5: What Are the Consequences of Introducing the Township Semi-Competitive Elections?.....................................................................................................................................140 5.1 Impact on economic development ..................................................................................140 5.2 Impact on the distribution of power at the local levels ...................................................143 5.3 Impact of the semi-free elections on relations between the authorities and the people CEU eTD Collection (local society)........................................................................................................................159 5.4 Impact on the development of civil society ....................................................................162 5.5 Impact on the attitudes of the party and state elite..........................................................164 5.6 Impacts on the discourse (ideology) of the party and state .............................................171 Chapter 6: Conclusions............................................................................................................175 6.1 What are the township semi-competitive elections? Why did they occur? What are the consequences?.......................................................................................................................175 2 6.2 What might happen next?................................................................................................182 6.3 What are the practical and theoretical implications?.......................................................184 Reference List..............................................................................................................................189 Annex: Statistical Data for Studies in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 CEU eTD Collection 3 Summary In the mid-1990s, China experienced its first cases of semi-competitive elections for major township officials. Since then, the new election practices have spread to many townships in many counties of a number of provinces. The positions open to the semi-competitive elections have been extended from township vice governors to township governors, and sometimes even township party secretaries. The number of cases increased from a dozen in the mid-1990s, to several hundred in the late 1990s, and to several thousand by the early 2000s. These developments have fueled expectations about an increase in the democratic elements in the political restructuring in China. The spatial distribution of the township semi-competitive election deviates from expectations derived from general theory on the development of democratic institutions and activities. Rather than first appearing and spreading in economically more developed, urbanized, and industrialized coastal regions, most cases of semi-competitive elections took place in economically less-developed agricultural and rural regions. Why is this the case? This research suggests that greater tensions between local authorities and residents in economically less-developed regions threaten the career development of local officials, in particular that of county party secretaries, whose top priorities since the late 1970s have changed from ensuring the dictatorship of the proletariat to promoting economic CEU eTD Collection development and maintaining social stability. In economically less-developed and agricultural hinterland regions, local residents are more sensitive to efforts by local authorities to extract resources from them. Furthermore, it is in these areas that local authorities are under more pressures to 4 extract resources from the local residents, thus exacerbating the tensions. Whereas in the more-developed regions the local authorities have economic resources to appease the disaffected, to ease tensions in the less-developed regions the leaders can only resort to political measures, one option being the semi-competitive elections. In order to defend or boost their career development, some local party officials, in particular county party secretaries who have nomenklatura power over the position of township mayor (and township party secretary) have introduced semi-competitive elections through which they concede some power of selection to the local residents. By increasing the participation and the voice of the people in selecting local decision-makers, the semi-competitive elections help appease the disaffected among the population. However, the new election practices also produce some effects that the local officials do not support. They decrease, if not eliminate, the monopoly power of the county party secretaries over cadre promotion. They increase the autonomy of the township authorities vis-à-vis county authorities. They fuel confrontations between township mayors and township party secretaries. They help boost articulation and network building among local residents. Finally, they break down ideological taboos regarding the possibility and desirability of competitive elections for state authorities among the political elite. All of these factors are drivers behind forces for more political restructuring in China. CEU eTD Collection 5 Acknowledgements The past several years in the PhD program in comparative politics at Central European University (CEU) are unforgettable, in particular because the methodology for political science research at CEU is so different from that in China. This program gave me a precious opportunity to learn a new approach
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