Study Of Grassroots Democratic Election In The Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region

In the first decade of21st century, election, especially the direct election, hasbecome a hot discussed topic in China.The mode and the way of constructinggrassroots democratic election of China has been one of the hotspots concerned byacademia. Having the question in mind, the author tries to find the answer from thepractice of grassroots democratic election in the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia BorderRegion in the1940s, under the leadership of CPC, with the purpose that we canmake contribution to the democracy at the grassroots level construction of socialismwith Chinese characteristics.In the paper, the main reference materials are files, government documents andnewspaper, and the paper develops the research work with a mixture use of historicalanalysis, legal sociology research method and political ecology analytical method. Itwill take the1941township-election as an example,after talking about the background, emphasizing the whole process and trying to display the full view of thepractice of grassroots democratic election in the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia BorderRegion under the leadership of CPC.The Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is a typical rural base area with poorgeography and environment condition and it is one of the poorest areas in China atthat time in economy, culture and social development. In the vast rural areas, there isstill landowner class and Bao-Jia System is a main kind of organizations at thegrass-roots level. CPC put forward the new democracy three-thirds system policy onthe base of anti-Japanese national united front, uniting all the anti-Japanese partiesand classes. The policy has set a great social foundation for the participation of auniversal suffrage movement from bottom to top by all people.In the townshipelection campaign1941, the central committee of CPC and the border regiongovernment confirmed combining the three-thirds system principle and the electioncampaign as the basic policy, stressing the importance of elections in the democraticpolitical construction. The border region government revised the councils at alllevels of the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region promulgated regulations at alllevels and the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region council election rules, makingtownship election legal. Then the border region government set up the election committees at all levels in accordance with the provisions of theShanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region at all levels of the election committeeorganization regulations.The election committees then become specializedorganizations to manage the whole election.Based on latest historical data, the paper divides the whole township election intoseven parts, namely mobilization, primary election, registration of voters,promulgation censoring government’s work report, nomination and getting thecandidates for the senate, tabling the bills, election campaign and counting. First, theborder region government holds training class for election. The students constitute aspecial election group to help the local electoral committee train local election cadres;Secondly, in order to set example for township election, according to the unifiedarrangement of the border region government, especially after yan ’an, PeiZhuanghaving obtained successful primary election, almost all the town take the primaryelection. Again, election cadres go to voters’ family to get them registered andcombine policy propaganda with registration, which dismisses the doubts of manyordinary people and the fear of the "burden". List is released in the form of red andwhite; next, one of the most important parts of township is to censor government’swork report. The report should be made by town mayor directly in the face of all people within their respective jurisdictions, and after reporting, people can discuss it;the border region electoral law says, a proposed with ten people in favor can benominated candidate for the senate, and encourage the anti-Japanese political parties,social organizations to nominate senate candidates in the name of the organization;Bills are put forward by the voters in a mass meeting or conference, and its biggestcharacteristic is feasible. Parties or mass organizations can exercise the right of billunity. The impromptu speech, opinion of the government work report, etc., will besummarized as cases, which becomes the main way of Bill; Campaign is a goodplace where candidates for the senate can show their talent and ability. They putforward their own platform to complete the campaign speech in a mass meeting orconference, and the voters will make their choices. The way according to thedifference of location, can be divided into three categories: meeting voting andelections, the back box elections and the both. In addition, the propaganda work isalways keeping steps with other work in combination with the characteristics ofdifferent stages.This paper has the idea that township election has led to led to the unique modelof democracy at the grassroots level which unites the direct civil rights andcombination of legislature and administration. The senator of township, the administrative villages and natural villages and township level (or fang Bao-Jia) isresponsible for directly by the voters, one person one vote. Village and municipalityconsultative council takes the combination of legislature and administration, and thecouncil is the highest power organ. When it is adjourned, the committee electedcouncil will be the highest organ. It has ruled that all voters elected, including senators,director of the administrative villages, and the village head, both have legislative andexecutive power; With the opportunity of township election, it absorbed the ruralactivists based on the consultative council, created some original organizations form ofdemocracy such as a package meetings, villagers convention and so on, which forms athree-dimensional multiple mechanism of democracy at the grassroots level in theborder regions. The township election also reflects the unified leadership of CPC andthe three-thirds system. the party’s unified leadership principles requires: the party,thegovernment and military,civilian organizations at the same level should subject to thelocal party committee; the subordinates obey superiors, the whole party to the centralcommittee. Under the unified leadership of the party, the three-thirds system townshipelection policy also encountered some problems, at the same time there appeared thetendency of left and right. Based on objective factual circumstances, the border regiongovernment has made the appropriate adjustment for three-thirds system during the township election.After the investigation of overall border township election, this paperpreliminarily interoperates of the democracy revolution of the communist party ofdemocratic path——mobilization. Most of the cadres come from their own hometown,having poor ability of neither arrangement nor knowledge; they have to mainly rely onthe relationship between acquaintances. Mobilization of democracy is a top-downdemocratic model hosted by the party and government. According to making the mostof this special democratic model of selection, the party and government try to help thebroad masses who are expected to participate in the election campaigns withconsciousness get rid of the fixed thinking pattern by using propaganda to encourageand control. The1941township-election has proved that the mobilization ofdemocracy has got significant effect. This kind of democratic mobilization, however,is closely related to the party and the government’s policy guidance. If "mobilizationforce" once weakened, the development of democracy will then slow downimmediately.Finally, the paper puts forward and reveals the modern value of the mass linewhich is the Chinese characteristic socialist democracy at the grassroots level one ofthe reinforcing ideas. In the popular pattern of public participation, farmers as a vulnerable group are difficult to actively participate in democratic politics. The massline advocated and adhered by CPC, reverses the direction by emphasizingdecision-makers to take the initiative to go deep among the masses. Practice ofgrassroots democratic election in border region set the logical starting point on themass line and have unprecedented success. Today, especially in the vast rural andless developed areas in China, the mass line in improving the democracy at thegrassroots level in the course of actual effect, promoting democracy at the grassrootslevel, still has incomparable advantage to other patterns.