Tamed Village "Democracy": Elections, Governance and Clientelism in a Contemporary Chinese Village
Guohui Wang - Tamed Village "Democracy": Elections, Governance and Clientelism in a Contemporary Chinese Village
Published: 2014-03-12 | ISBN: 3642540570 | PDF | 177 pages | 3 MB
Wang's book offers an empirically rich and conceptually nuanced analysis of how local state agents maintain control over village self-governance in China. His careful analysis of primary documents enables him to explicate the formal mechanisms used by members of the local state to influence village affairs. Meanwhile, his rigorous and fascinating ethnographic data enable him to elucidate the manifold ways in which informal clientelist ties between local state officials and village elites permit the former to exert control. Overall, this excellent book powerfully demonstrates the need for scholars to go beyond attention to election processes when evaluating what village democracy means in a Chinese context. It is a must-read for all serious scholars of Chinese politics and society.