The post-election administration of Chinese villages

The spread of village elections in China since the implementation of the Organic Law on Villagers' Committees in 1987 suggests to many observers that democracy has taken hold at the grassroots. In examining these elections, foreign researchers have largely focused on voting procedures or on questions such as whether the level of economic development affects the likelihood that a village will hold genuine elections. Considerably less attention has been devoted to the workings of village in stitutions after the elections. This article looks at how self-administration works in practice, and shows that in some major policy areas the directly elected village committees, which are made up of a village head and a few other village officials, are treated like line-organs of the Chinese government and have to carry out orders from above.