A Study On The Problems Of Farmers’ Political Participation In Contemporary China

Political participation is a way for citizens to express their political actions. It is one of the most important parts of politics study. Farmers’ political participation refers to the way that farmers, as the main body, take part in the national political life, express their political will and political appeal and try to influence the formulation and implementation of political policies of the country by using all kinds of forms and ways. China is a great agricultural country and more than 50 percent of the farmers with rural households live in the countryside and are engaged in farming.Therefore, the level of farmers’ political participation directly affects the building of political modernization and the system of political democracy. The development of farmers’ political participation in China has experienced ups and downs and presented as an upward spiral since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, the Party Central Committee and the National Government have implemented the policy of reform and opening up, the farmers showed more and more enthusiasm for political participation. Although there are many ways for farmers to be involved in political participation, however, in the process of farmers’ political participation, there exists some problems such as the unsatisfactory results, the disparity in participation subjects, the lack of awareness of policy, laws and rights and the non-institution tends to extend; the level of farmers’ political participation still remains quite low and most farmers take an indifferent attitude towards political participation. The distribution of farmers who take part in political life is not well balanced, and the psychological factors of farmers also affect their political participation. What’s more, the existing political participation system and institution is not so sound, which, to a certain degree, also influences the development of farmers’ political participation. Hence, it is urgent to solidify the basis for farmers’ political participation, to improve political participation system, to improve education in the countryside, to advocate political culture for political participation, to change the functions of the government and to standardize the behavior of the leaders. As a significant process in the course of political modernization in China, the enhancement of farmers’ political participation can provide strong guarantee for the building of democracy in community-level, institutionalization and legalization. Consequently, making a study of the problems of farmers’ political participation in our country is of great significance.This thesis begins with the significance of the study, then gives the definitions of political participation and farmers in China and explains the research approaches.The author probes into the two development processes of farmers’ political participation( the first period is from the founding of the PRC to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee; the second period is from the Third Plenary Session to the present time.) and analyses the characteristics, the causes, the problems of farmers’ political participation in contemporary China and points out the factors which restrict the development of farmers’ political participation in our country. The author also elaborates on the great realistic significance of Chinese farmers’ political participation to the building of socialist political civilization and harmonious society. In the last part of the thesis, the author puts forward some practical solutions to solve the problems existing in farmers’ political participation in contemporary China and makes a summary of the whole thesis.