Grassroots Political Change In The Authority, Autonomy And System

The grass-roots politics is a good point to examine a country's political structure, po1itical ecology,the right system and the political control.It is rare in the academic community that from the view of historical institutionalism theory to consider the grassroots community,especially the national grass-roots of society's political change over a long period.Therefore,the purpose of this study lies in the investigation of nearly a centuyy of political changes of the southwest frontier of the motherland through the southem Yunnan----Baoxiu town,using the historical institutionalism "system Field"as the analysis tool to show its process of political change,power and features,etc.and based on this,summing up the general characteristics and prospects of the grass-roots political development.Throughout the dissertation,I use the empirical case studies,historical/comparative study,research and statistical methods to demonstrate the development of grassroots political panorama.Before the Ming Dynasty,there were mostly the ethnic minority settlements in the Southern Yunnan region.Yuan ago,the grass-roots sociecy in Yunnan was the independent status.In Yuan,Ming later,the main state inhabited by ethnic minorities was broken,the closed and the same traditional society was parted off by cultural assimilation and military embedded in the system.With the spread of Chinese culture and the rise of the gentry class,the grass-roots political structure mainly controlled by the gentry gradually took sharp.In late Qing dynasty and Beiyang period,the national power first sank into rural society,the modern sense of the county and township administrative system gradually built.At the instigalion of the national transformation and local self-government,the upper echelons of the folk society also presented unprecedented participation enthusiasm and social responsibility.At this time although government's political control of the county greatly strengthened with groups such as insurance organization, but the country's grass-roots political power remained at the county level,districts and townships were only self-governing institutions,not the end of the political organization.The Nanjing national government period,the most prominent feature of grass-roots politics was the transition from the form of local self-government organizations to national grass—toots political power,the leadership of squires in local and national gentries reflected thicker official meaning,the official state power sank into the folk society.This period,although the autonomy of the local community has been a certain degree of repression, but it still to fight, resist or uncooperative and other types of political participation, expressing of the rural resistance to state authority. Bao-jia system which intended to tight control over local, and the system design of grass-roots and political power reflected obvious non-intention and inefficiency.After the new China's "collectivization era," southern Yunnan region has experienced the system from the zone to the regional ethnic autonomy system, bottom-up and top-down democratization movement makes the grass-roots community-acquired the greatest degree of political participation. Chinese farmers from the traditional social and political edge became the main body of the country's political life. The subsequent political movement and the people's communes made originally loose grass-roots society unreserved forced into the national political system, national autonomy to some extent have also been denied, state domination of society was a typical control mode.Since the reform, rural grass-roots recovered area establishment. With social and economic prosperity and national taxation reform, quiet rural community is getting more active. As a result of the impact and constraints of the country's political system, this trend is always among the wrangling between the rule of law and the party. The village committee elections with the autonomous nature and the township mayors and township party secretary's direct election first opened the door to grassroots political reform.Based on the above study, firstly, state power through the system to regulate the way into the rural society and authority, emphasis on educating the community on building a "strong government-strong society" strong type of mutual relations between state and society;. Secondly, the political changes of the long-term national (government) as the leading made the rural social control and controlled habit hindering grassroots political development and democratization process in countries. Thirdly, in south Yunnan nearly 100 years of practice process, the electoral system is a reflection tool for the distinct characteristics. Fourthly, although ethnic factors influence the development of grassroots political one of the factors, but the country (government) still dominated basic-level political development. Fifthly, from the grassroots political development course and direction of grassroots democracy, the rule of law is the most need of safeguard system of grass-roots democracy.