A Study On The Autonomy Of The Villagers Of Dong Nationality

Villagers ’ autonomy is the foundation and important component of China’sSocialist democracy, and the rural villagers’ autonomy of ethnic minorities is anindispensable part of our rural grassroots democratic self-government system. Thispaper has been studied in respect of contemporary Dong villagers’ autonomy usingfield method and it takes the phenomenon of Luo Xiang village as the main surveyingobject after the writer visited some ethnic villages of Dong in the Southeast ofGuizhou province under the professor Zhou Xiangqing’s leadership, such as Luoxiangvillage in Jiang county, Zhaoxing village in Liping county, Zhaizhang village inRongjiang county etc. The author find that Dong is not only restricted by village rules,but also restricted by some ZhaiGui (some rules are produced from the ethnic village).Some folk common law of the ethnic of Dong has been penetrating into theregulations of the whole society of Dong. All of these rules have been implementedby the external force which the local people have recognized and several customarywhich are unwritten now. In addition, in order to do some comparative research, theauthor also do some research on Beiguang village, Chengguan town, Qiangfengcounty, Henan province, which can serve as a typical representative village of theethnic of Han in the northern area in China. Apart from the conclusion of this article,it consists of four parts:Part I is the introduction, mainly introduces the selected topic purpose, researchstatus, research significance, the process of investigation, the basic situation ofLuoxiang village and the research methods.Part II is the basic situation of villager autonomy in Luoxiang village. Thecurrent villager autonomy organizations in Luoxiang present the characteristics of thedual structure. In addition to the villagers’ committee system, there are sometraditional folk autonomous organizations which are composed of Zhailao andLuohantou existed in all natural village. The village meeting of Luoxiang also has itsown features: apart from the villagers Conference, Luoxiang village will hold atemporary special council form meeting which proposed by a certain number of Zhailao, Luohantou and villagers’ representatives when there are some specialcircumstances happened. The Autonomy statute in Luoxiang is also dual structure, itnot only including the village regulation and non-governmental agreement which areapply to all the villagers, but also including the ZhaiGui (or convention) from eachnatural village. The village regulation and non-governmental agreement contain asignificant amount of common law, such as “Three seventy catties” and so on. In fact,there have bipartite punishment system for the people who violate the villageregulations. Villagers supervision also has features of Dong customary, the villagemeeting above is not only the main work way of the villagers’ committee but also theimportant democratic supervision measures in villagers autonomy. If there are somevillage cadres seriously damage the interests of the villagers for his self-interest, itcould resulted in a violence acts of villagers to maintain the villagers’ right andinterests under the leadership of Zhailao and Luohantou. It reflected the traditionalfolk autonomous power have some supervisory and restrictive role on the exercise ofthe power of village cadres. In Luoxiang village, people will ask their own Zhailao forhelp when only there some small dispute occurred, most of time people will go to thevillagers conciliation committee to solve their problems. However, in Zhaizhangvillage, Zhongcheng town, Dong county, people usually invited Zhailao to take part inthe villagers conciliation committee.Part III is the comparison. The writer compare the situation of villagers ’autonomy in Luoxiang with Northern Han villagers’ autonomy necessarily. As thevillagers autonomous organization, there is a difference between the two places. Thespecific approaches of village committee elections in Luoxiang can deter bribery andsome family influences on the process of election, it reflected a more thoroughdemocracy, while in the northern Han region, the village committee often adoptvillagers’ representatives pattern. The formulation of the village regulationnon-governmental regulations in Luoxiang reflects a wide range of democracy, apartfrom the village regulations, each natural village(in China called Zhai) also has itsown village rules(also called ZhaiGui), the compliance of these is better than theregulations of Han villages in the North. And most regulations in the Northern Han areas are related to the provisions of national laws, regulations, policy list as well asthe collection of morality slogans. When the democratic supervision procedures ofOrganic Law of Village Committees cannot satisfied with the people’s demands, therewill appear the extremely situations in both place, namely, people may develop tomassive smash which have been happened in Luoxiang village; or people wouldchoose leapfrog petition in Northern Han areas; However, there are no big differencein the aspect of villagers mediation, both of them are composed of members of theconciliation or conciliation directors, when the problem cannot be solved byconciliation, the parties will asked Township judicial for help, or choose courtproceedings. In Zhaizhang village, the village cadres always invited Zhailao to jointhe conciliation. In Luoxiang village, Dong’s customary law has influenced on theelection of village committees, the formulation of village regulations, the democraticsupervision etc. The village regulations and non-governmental regulations inLuoxiang village have absorb a lot of customary law, and it exists two-tier autonomyorganizations and stipulation system, which are not existed in Northern Han areas.The surname of most people in Luoxiang village called Lu, because of the closelyconnection of culture, custom, emotion and so on, the author has not found thecompeting clans among them, whereas it could be complicated in the Northern Hanareas.Part IV is the enlightenment to perfecting the system of villagers’ autonomy ofChina after study the self-governance of Luoxiang village. In the aspect of the villageautonomy organization settings, village regulations formulation, villager mediationand so on, the traditional Northern Han areas can use Luoxiang’s experiences for areference. Meanwhile, it also enlightenment to perfecting the system of villagers ’autonomy of our country in the following: First, improving the leadership of villageparty branch to the village Committee, and establishing village committee andvillagers assembly supervision of the party branch. Second, to exercise the villagersassembly power effectively, and to enhance the supervisory authority of the villagersassembly. Third, lay emphasis on the improvement of the ability of villagers involvedin villager’s autonomy.