A Study On The Influencing Factors Of Village Committee Election

Since the promulgation of The Organization Law of Villagers Committee of the People’s Republic of China, villagers’ autonomy, in the form of self-management, self-education and self-service, has been practiced in China’s rural areas and in its main contents are included democratic election, democratic decision, democratic management and democratic supervision. As the legal autonomous organization of and for the village people, the Villagers Committee, elected through the democratic progress, is stipulated by the law, so that the democratic election has become the primary content of the grassroots rural democracy. The quality of the villagers committee’s re-election is not only an essential factor influencing the consolidation of the grassroots political power but also an important guarantee of further promoting the construction of harmonious society. For the above reasons, the studies on the factors related to the quality of the villagers committee’s election have become a key project that has aroused intense attention. The present paper focuses on the substantial analysis of the process of the villagers committee’s re-election that took place in2009, in Jiading District, Shanghai, and also on the related indexes involved in the election result. Based on the related data concerning the respective village’s economy, scale, resources and its election result, the author finds out the extent to which a village’s economy, scale and resources will sway the village people’s participation and competitiveness in the election.The results of the studies are as follows:1. The economic factor has some influence on both the participation and the competitiveness in the election of the villagers committee. Within the jurisdiction of a specific village, where "the total profit of the permanent residents per capita" is higher, the lower the degree of the participation tends to be lower but the competitiveness the higher;2. While the scale of a specific village has almost no influence on the degree of the participation, it does more or less affect the competitiveness. Where there are more villagers’ groups, the competitiveness tends to be fiercer, and where there are more registered electorates, the competitiveness tends to be lower.3. The village’s resources have some influence on both the participation and the competitiveness in the election of the villagers committee. The less "the investment in the basic construction for the permanent residents per capita", the lower the competitiveness, while the more "the cultivated land for the permanent residents", the higher the competitiveness.Also included in the present paper is the analysis of the combined influence of economy, scale and resources on the participation and competitiveness in the election of the villagers committee. The author argues that economic factors exercise more influence on the degree of participation, while resources factors more on the competitiveness than the other two.