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Democratic Development in China's Urban Communities

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Democratic Development in China's Urban Communities DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA’S URBAN COMMUNITIES A dissertation presented by Chow Bing NGEOW to The Department of Political Science In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the field of Public and International Affairs Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts January, 2010 1 Democratic Development in China’s Urban Communities by Chow Bing NGEOW ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Northeastern University, January 2010 2 ABSTRACT Since mid-1990s, the Chinese government has been promoting a policy of community construction ( shequ ) in urban areas. One of the main focuses of this policy is to build up the democratic infrastructure and institutions at the grassroots level in the cities. As a result, political and institutional reforms to make grassroots governance more democratic have been experimented and implemented in many cities. Members of the residents’ committee, the “mass-organization” entrusted to governance the communities ( shequ ), are now to be democratically elected. The administration of the communities has to adhere to the principles of democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision. The grassroots organs of the ruling Chinese Communist Party have to adapt to the democratic institutions, while non-governmental organizations, especially in the form of the homeowners’ committee, also emerges as another channel for urban residents to participate in public affairs. The major aim of this study is to document and analyze these institutional designs and reforms. It also provides an interpretive perspective for these grassroots democratic reforms, arguing that these reforms embody a Chinese model of democratic development. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and support of many people, especially my mentor, advisor, dissertation committee chair, and friend, Professor Suzanne Ogden. She has always assured me my ability to undertake this challenging intellectual journey even if I had had doubts about myself. I was in her class on Chinese politics the very first semester as a graduate student at Northeastern University. Since then, she has been a constant source of inspiration. During my writing process, she patiently and carefully read every chapter and took the extraordinary steps to correct many mistakes and errors. She also provided many challenging questions that forced me to rewrite many parts of the dissertation. Without her constructive criticism, this dissertation would be a much poorer work. Prof. Denise Horn at the International Affairs program at Northeastern University and Prof. Shiping Hua at the University of Louisville, both of them served as my dissertation committee members, also deserve my upmost gratitude. I also want to thank the staff at the Political Science Department for their help. Prof. Portz, the chair of the department, has been supportive of my research and given me many opportunities to continue teaching for the department so that I don’t have to worry about my income when writing the dissertation. The department also provided a grant for my research trip. I wish to express my sincerest appreciation for all the help provided by Northeastern University’s Political Science Department. I want to thank Dr Liu Ye and Dr. Peng Bo for facilitating my research trip to Shanghai in Fall 2007. In fact, it was my conversation with them in a conference in 2005 that inspired my interest in the democratic reforms in China’s urban communities. As a 4 special research student at Fudan University in Shanghai, I wish to thank the help of Prof. Liu Chunrong, Prof. Lin Shangli, and Prof. Zheng Changzhong. Finally, none of this would have been possible without the support of my friends and family. My friend Ban-Hong Wong remains my closest friend for all these years studying in Boston. I want to thank my wife Hwee-Thing, for her patience, sacrifice, and love throughout the process. In the process she also gave me a daughter, Li-Yue. I was really afraid when she was born that I could not handle the simultaneous tasks of writing a dissertation and taking care of a full family. But Li-Yue actually gave me the determination to finish the project. Finally, I wish to thank my parents. Their love and support have made it possible for me to continue on this intellectual journey. 5 Table of Contents Abstract------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 Acknowledgements ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 Table of Contents-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 List of Tables -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 List of Figures ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 Chapter 1 Introduction: Democratic Development in China’s Urban Communities -------9 Chapter 2 The Concept and Meaning of Shequ in China’s Political System---------------23 Chapter 3 The Background of Shequ ’s Democratization--------------------------------------73 Chapter 4 Institutionalizing and Reforming Elections in Shequ ------------------------------91 Chapter 5 Toward Democratic Public Administration and Governance in Shequ : Institutional Innovations--------------------------------------------------------------------------169 Chapter 6 Accommodating the Party or Accommodating Democracy: Shequ Party Building and Shequ Democratic Development------------------------------------------------209 Chapter 7 Homeowners’ Committees: The Emergence of Shequ -Based Civil Society--242 Chapter 8 Conclusion and Discussion----------------------------------------------------------282 Appendices ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------304 Works Cited ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------330 6 List of Tables Table 4.1: Average Election Expenses per Shequ Table 4.2: Nomination Methods Table 4.3: “Degree” and “Range” of Differential Elections Table 6.1: Responsibilities of Street and Shequ Party Organizations Table 6.2: Percentages of Jiaocha renzhi and Yijiantiao Table 7.1: Homeowners’ Committees in 12 Chinese Cities 7 List of Figures Figure 2.1: Administrative Structure in China Figure 2.2: Organizational Structure of the Residents’ Committee Figure 4.1: Legal Framework of Residents’ Committee Elections Figure 4.2: Different Types of Differential Elections Figure 5.1: Two Models of Yixing fenshe 8 Chapter 1 Introduction: Democratic Development in China’s Urban Shequ /Communities The “reform and opening up” policy of China, launched after the ascendancy of the then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, has brought tremendous material improvements to China and has made China a rising power in East Asia and the world. The reform policy, successful as it is, is mostly understood in economic terms. With the ruling Chinese Communist Party still restricting multi-party competition, full judicial independence, free flow of information and media liberalization, and freedoms of speech and association, there is a strong perception that no significant political reforms have taken place. Nevertheless, this is a simplistic perception. It is true that reforms have not made China a liberal democratic polity, not even an electoral authoritarian regime. But politics in the reform era is very different from the politics in the pre-reform era. Succession of leadership has been institutionalized. The legislative institution is becoming more assertive and independent. Government actions are less arbitrary and more predictable. Rule of law and the building of legal institutions have been expanded and are recognized as foundational to the “socialist political civilization.” A modern, technocratic civil service system has taken the place of the old revolutionary cadres system. Proliferation of interest associations has reduced the omnipresent power of the state. On an individual level, Chinese citizens now enjoy more freedoms and rights than before. Among the political changes that have occurred in the reform era, elections naturally attract the most attentions. Since elections are generally seen as synonymous with “democracy” as narrowly defined, many China watchers have tried to gauge the 9 “true” extent of political reforms by looking at Chinese elections. Grassroots elections of villagers’ committees in the rural areas, introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, thus is one of the most popular subjects for political scientists studying China. 1 China, however, is rapidly urbanizing. A 2009 report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows that Chinese urbanization rate is estimated at 45.7%, which means that China now has more than 600 million urban residents, almost half of the population. There are 118 cities with a population size of more than a million. 2 Focusing on political reforms in rural villages is no longer adequate for assessing China’s overall political reforms. Political reforms undertaken in cities, the political-economic- cultural centers in China, could have implications as well. This dissertation, therefore, is a study of political reforms/democratic development in Chinese cities, with a special focus on its grassroots shequ (communities).
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