Research On Villagers' Participation In Political Affairs In Xin Zhuang

Political participation is an important index to weigh politicalmodernization. It is a significant content as well as a remarkable sign ofdemocratic politics. China is a large agricultural country and farmers takeup more than half of the population. The degree of farmers'participationin political affairs has a direct influence on the process of the politicaldemocratization of our country and plays an essential role in the developmentof the democratic politics of our country. Therefore, it is of greatsignificance to carry out the research on farmers'participation in politicalaffairs. However, China has a vast area and in different regions, there aredifferent characteristics of economic and social developments as well as ofthe cultures, so the depth and scope of farmers'political participationdemonstrate a very strong regional feature. This thesis studies the regionin the northwest of Shandong Province, specifically it refers to the countyof Wucheng in Dezhou. Currently this county has jurisdiction over 5 towns,3 townships and 391 administrative villages, with the total area of 748 sq.km., among which the farmland is 43333.333 hectares. The population of thisregion is 360,000. This thesis takes Xin Zhuang, a typical village, as anexample, to reflect the actual situations of political participation in mostof the villages in the northwest of Shandong Province.The research is carried out through political sociology method, case studyand interviews. The thesis is divided into five parts, namely, the introduction,the villagers'political participation in Xin Zhuang, the analysis of factorsinfluencing villagers'political participation, the formation of villagers'orderly political participation, and the conclusion and the discussion. Thefirst part presents a comparatively systematic introduction of thesignificance of the research, the explanation of the key words, an overviewof the current research literature on the topic of farmers'politicalparticipation and the research methodology.The first part introduces the general information of Xin Zhuang. Accordingto the Elite Theory, the villagers are classified into three groups, namely,system elites,non-system elites and ordinary villagers. The author then maderespective researches on the motivations and ways of the politicalparticipation of the three groups and finally analyzed the fivecharacteristics of the villagers'political participation in Xin Zhuang indetail, which are listed as follows:Firstly, the network of blood relationshas a deep influence on villagers'political participation. Secondly, thefeature of acquaintances' societymakes the politics in Xin Zhuang a kind ofpolitics of human touch or politics of relations. Thirdly, the overt contentionand covert struggle between different fractions are shown conspicuously inthe villagers'participation in political affairs in Xin Zhuang. Fourthly,the level of the villagers'political participation is still not very highand the scope is far from sufficient. Fifthly, families are the basic unitfor villagers to carry out political, economic and cultural activities. The second part analyzes three major factors influencing villagers'participation in political affairs, namely, the subject factor, the factorof the village's social structure and the political cultural factor. Thisis the major part of the thesis. As to the subject factor, rational choices,political efficacy and political sense of obligation are three importantpersonal preferred factors, which influence villagers'voting. The economicstatus, the political status, the educational background and the gender belongto factors of social status, which exert an influence on the villagers'political participation. In regard to the factor of the village's socialstructure, the state of the village's economic development, the comparativelysingle economic structure and the small-scale farmer mode of production withindependent management are the factors of economic structure which restrictvillagers'participation in political affairs. Meanwhile, the relationbetween county and village, the relation between " two committees " and theorganizational participation are the factors of political structure which havean influence on villagers'participation in political affairs. The analysisof villagers'low-level political cognition, the intense peasant psychologyand the negative political appraisals present the intensity of influence thatthe political cultural factor puts on villagers'political participation. The third part is the analysis based on the first and second parts. Inthis part, the author also put forward several proposals on how to help thevillagers form an orderly participation in political affairs. The proposalsinclude: develop the village economy; increase villagers'income level;attempt to set up autonomous organization of villagers; strengthen the forceof villagers'expression of benefit;thrive the culture in the countryside;improve villagers'ability to participate in political affairs; provideeffective systematic supply; make reforms in the organizations at thegrassroots level. The fourth part is the conclusion and the discussion. Through the aboveanalysis, a conclusion is generated as follows: in Xin Zhuang, all kinds of...