Can local elections contribute to democratic progress in authoritarian regimes?: Exploring the political ramifications of China's Village elections.

摘要

This study attempts to better understand the dynamics of local elections in authoritarian regimes through conducting a within-country comparative study of China's Village Committee elections. Original multi-level survey evidence from Shandong and Henan provinces is analyzed, along with qualitative evidence from cases and interviews. Although village elections are generally poor in quality, this study shows that the elections do tend to encourage the democratic responsiveness of elected leaders, especially through changing the incentive structures faced by leaders. Village elections also encourage the democratic engagement of the public, especially through changing features of the local political environment, such as the expected costs and benefits of political engagement. Still, the potential impact of the elections is clearly limited by the authoritarian environment. The township level of government, which oversees the village level, is shown to have a particularly strong influence over the quality of elections, and thus has significant indirect control over local levels of democratic responsiveness and democratic engagement.