china's 1979 election law and its implementation

Elecroral Sfudies (1986). S:2, 153-165

China’s 1979 Election Law and Its Implementation

ROBERT E. BEDESKI-

Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario KlS SB6, Canada

A new election law was passed by the National People’s Congress in 1979 to replace the 1953 law. This law extended direct elections to the county level people’s congresses, and also introduced the practice of multiple candidates for each seat. This reform is part of the general trend towards increased stress on legality and democracy in the People’s Republic of China. The new ekction system has led to an elaborate complex of unequal representation in favor of urban areas at the expense of the peasantry. National minorities also have greater representation than their actual numbers would warrant. The structure and functions of election comittees, election districts, local congresses and govem- ment, and small voters’ groups are examined. Specific conditions in several localities are also described.

The Evolving Chinese State: Towards Socialist Legality

Since the Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party in 1978 the Chinese leadership has embarked on a series of reforms designed to transform China into a modem socialist polity. In general, these reforms have rejected the radical experiments and innovations of the cultural revolution, as well as some aspects of the Soviet model of state and economy. A few of the new policy directions include a new ‘open door’ foreign policy, material incentives in agriculture, socialist legality and competitive examinations in higher education.’ Reform from above is not a new phenomenon in China. The ‘Self-Strengthening Movement’, ‘Hundred Days Reform’, and ‘New Life Movement’ in the pre-communist period were also attempts to transform China into a modem society. Civil wars, foreign invasion, and revolu- tions delayed the desired transformation, as contending political forces sought to impose political order on the fragmented society.

In China, as in many other developing societies, political order claims precedence over modernization and democracy. Without civil order, government-led changes face immense obstacles in implementation. The centrally-guided state is often the framework of democratization and modernization. The nation-state, as it evolved in Western Europe after the Renaissance, has become the sine quu non of political modernity for most of the world.* Its centralized authority and rational administrative system have provided the preferred political apparatus for many developing countries which often neglect the equally important quality of constitutional democracy, or postpone it as a future luxury.

*Support for research on this project was provided by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The author is grateful to Professor James Townsend for his comments on an earlier draft of the paper.

0261.3794/86/02/0153-13/$03.00 0 1986 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd

15-i Chino’s 1979 Election bw and Its implementation

One of the centrai dilemmas of political order and democracy is that a nation must generally achieve state sovereignty before constitutional democracy can be established. Historically, force has been necessary to initiate political independence and unity. With the establishment of unified state sovereignty, a legal and constitutional order can be set up. Because legal codification may interfere with dictatorship Power, fundamental laws may be ignored or postponed-as was the case in the Chinese cultural revolution.

The legal system and administrative apparatus are indispensable structures of the nation- state which has evolved past the stage of use of physical force and psychological coercion to

carry out its commands.3 Impersonal law, based on constitutional principles, provides guide- lines, rules, processes, and structures to legislate, execute, adjudicate, and administer state commands.

In the case of mainland China it appears that, since the death of Mao. the Chinese nation- state is moving into a new stage of evolution-legal-rationality. Resisting this evolution is the Soviet heritage of the party-state which does not value change or the capacity for change. The Sovia system ‘aims only at identical reproduction in all areas save that of power . . . [In the socialist world] the state is merely the a~inistrati~re arm of the Party, which absorbs within itself ali political life. Society itself is merely the largely undifferentiated place, kept as unstructured as possible.‘4

There had been a false start toward legal-rationality in the early 1950~ and the present modernization program in politics, law, and economy traces its origins from that period. The resumption of lega! rationality, after a long hiatus during the Maoist years, was welcomed by Chinese and foreigners alike. It has facilitated foreign investment by giving foreigners confidence that contracts will be enforced and property will be protected. It has helped to restore party credibility among the populace as some of the abuses and injustices of the Mao years are corrected.>

There has been a fundamental revision of official attitudes towards law and legality-concepts which were largely largeiy abandoned during the cultural revolution. Dong Biwu, the President of the People’s Court, proclaimed in I957 that ‘A state without a legal system is not a state. A law not followed means no law.‘” In 1978, the revival of the state’s legal system became a major instrument in re-establishing political order. Hua Guofeng and other leaders called for a strong legal system-in contrast to the virtual rejection of formal legalism during the cultural revolution.

The Chinese revival of legality is linked to the notion of citizenship in China. The traditional Chinese concept of citizenship acted as an obstacle to democratization. A fundamental principle of citizenship in China is that the rights of the state and collectivity take precedent over those of the individual citizen. Article 51 of the 1982 Constitution, for example. stipulates:

The exercise by citizens of the People’s Republic of China of their freedoms and rights may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society and of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens.

This primacy of the state under Marxism may be explained in part by its rejection of the theory of natural rights. That is, the inviola%lity and fundamental dignity of individuals does not exist to provide theoretical protection from the state or its agents. In China, such a theory apparently existed in early times (Z&n f~ renquan sbtlo) but fell into disuse.’ Marxists see the theory as a historical tool of the bourgeoisie to overthrow feudalism, and as linked exclusively to the rights of property. Bourgeois theorists are ‘unscientific’ in claiming that natural rights of citizenship do not have a class nature, and thus a material foundation. Marxists often ignore that the rights of citizenship were expanded to other segments of

ROBERT E. BEDESKI 155

society-including the proletariat-through legislation, and are protected by law and constitutional guarantees. The bourgeoisie has thus accepted, or has been forced to accept, limitations on its political power by law and constitution. The doctrine of natural rights has been a limitation on the power of the state over citizens in liberal democratic (‘bourgeois’) states. The Chinese state, and other communist states, do not recognize this limitation and thus reject a doctrine which posits prior and independent individual rights.

Within the constitutional framework, inherited and developed since 1949, the role of citizens as active and independent participants in political processes such as elections has remained circumscribed. This framework can be attributed to the Soviet model of the state, Marxist ideology, the abhorrence of social disorder, and even the persistence of Confucian assumptions about society. These latter include the difference between mental and physical labor, and the assumption that wise leadership will best improve society. It would be over- optimistic to expect liberalization of the political system along Western democratic lines. Nevertheless, the post-Mao period has witnessed some progress towards reducing bureau- cratic dictatorship, and in expanding citizen participation.

Political Context of the Election Law

A major feature of the Deng reforms is the increasing division between party and govem- ment responsibilities. This has widened the sphere of government activity and responsi- bility, and has introduced elections to a higher level of the people’s congress-the county

(xzizn). The Election Law of 1979 also introduced multiple candidates in the election process-a renunciation of the Soviet method of single candidates.

A preliminary consideration of the 1979 Law suggests some significant changes which affect the Chinese political system:

1. As extra-party democracy is implemented under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the election system since 1979 provides some indication of how this might be done in the future. Zhang Youyu, the President of the Chinese Political Science Association, told the author that direct elections will be extended to higher levels of government in the future.

2. As government activity expands, the process and criteria of selecting deputies and officials will provide important indicators of any actual redistribution of power. That is, some aspects of political Iife may become more visible to outside observers as elections become more important.

3. Elected representatives are gradually assuming more responsibilities and contributing to the rule-making process in China. Through the system of constituent suggestions and inspection tours, local representatives are acting as links between voters and the govem- ment, although the party retains its control over the political process.

4. Although the CCP dominates the political process in China, the people’s congresses have significant proportions of non-party personnel. This might be a symptom of the congress’s political irrelevance, but it may also indicate future implications as local congresses exercise rule-making functions. Deng Xiaoping has reportedly called for a system of supervision in which the masses and party members can supervise the cadres.*

5. The reforms in general and the election law in particular represent structural departures from the Soviet model which probably will become permanent in the future. It means that the previous incompatability of Soviet and Chinese perspectives could be widened.9

Despite a few potential democratic advances under these changes, it must be remembered that the Soviet election system (the model for earlier Chinese elections) facilitates party control over society far more than it democratizes political life. For example, elections enable

156 Chim.z ‘s 1979 Election Lilw and Itx Implementation

the authorities to screen candidates for party membership and to reward them for faithful service. The process of registration also acts as a check on the internal passport system, and audits the efficiency of the police in controlling movements of individuals. In the Soviet Union, elections are used as means of discovering opponents of the regime, and they provide training grounds for implementation of development policy. to It is likely that these functions were incorporated into the Chinese system.

After the Third Party Plenum and the Fifth National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China in 1978, the Beijing authorities have been engaged in building new political institutions to restore stability to the state, and public confidence in the leadership. Under the rubric of the four modernizations, the PRC now stresses ruIe of law, separation of party and government functions, and development of more effective administration at the local levels. Two major reasons for this change are to avoid turmoil such as the cultural revolution, and to provide procedural regularity in political life as one of the foundation of modernization. An important effect will be to create new structures to facilitate social control and monitor public opinion through the institutions of representation.

Despite these reforms, fundamental change in the nature of the Chinese state is not antici- pated under the Deng regime and his successors. Some shift away from the Stalinist model is occurring in the realm of electoral process, but not enough to transform the PRC into a limited democracy with an active opposition, such as exists in South Korea or Taiwan at present. There is a reduction in totalitarian aspects in China, but communist party control appears largely unshaken.

The 1979 Election Law

As part of the general policy to modernize the political system, the National People’s Congress (NPC) passed and promulgated a new election law: the ‘Electoral Law of the PRC for the NPC and Local People’s Congresses of All Levels’, which was approved at the second session of the Fifth NPC on 1 July 1979. This supersedes the 1953 Electoral Law (promulgated 1 March 195 3), which had superseded the General Regulations on People’s Congresses of 1949. The 1979 Election Law was revised in March 1983.”

The major features of the 1979 Election Law include the following:

1. Direct elections at the local level-up to the district, or qu in urban areas, and up to the county, or nian in rural areas;

2. Strict qualifications for voters, which allow for absentee ballots and exclude ‘counterfevoiutiona~es’;

3. Variable r~resentation proportions, with different constituencies having unequal representation in the people’s congresses; and

4. More candidates in elections than the number of deputy seats.

The 1979 Law extended direct election to the xian (county) level. Peng Zhen, Director of the NPC Commission on Legislative Affairs, explained:‘*

Since the people in a given county are more familiar with the state organs and state personnel of that county, direct election is not only a sure guarantee of democratic

election but is also beneficial to the people’s effective supervision over state organs at the county Ievel and their personnel.

As modernization proceeds and the masses acquire higher ‘democratic consciousness’, direct elections will be expanded to higher levels of people’s congresses in the future. This process of training the people in democracy at the basic level is similar to the notion of Political Tutelage in Sun Yat-sen’s Reconstruction of China.‘3

ROBERT E. BEDESKI

Unequal Representation

157

Article 4 states: ‘Each voter shall have only one vote (toupiao quan).’ However, this does not mean equal representation.‘” According to a scholar at the Institute of Law, Zhang Qingfu, ‘this is not completely equal, but it originates from the present conditions of China’.‘> As the differences between workers and peasants, urban and rural sectors diminish, this difference in representation proportion will also decrease, according to Zhang. One example of unequal representation is Guangzhou’s Yuexiu district, which has a population of 496,000, with 340,000 registered voters. The largest election district in the qu has nearly 4,000 voters, with five representatives, giving a representative proportion of 1:800. The average election district has 3,000 voters. The smallest has 2,000, with one deputy-a representative proportion of 1:2,000. This SOR of inequality of constituency was found throughout China, and was not considered unusual.

Chapter Two of the 1979 Election Law deals with the process of deciding on the numbers of deputies. The number of deputies to each people’s congress at all levels is decided by the standing committees of the people’s congresses at that level. The first principle stipulated is that the decision will be based on convenience for convening meetings and discussing and solving problems. This means an upper limit to the size of the people’s congresses, although this is not stipulated in law. The second principle is that various nationalities, areas and ‘circles’ shall have an adequate number of deputies to insure representation of the local community. Then the number of deputies decided is reported to the NPC standing committee for recording.

The major difference in congress representation is between urban and rural people’s congresses. According to Article Ten, for the people’s congresses at the county and autonomous prefectural level, the number of people represented by one deputy in a rural area must be equal to four times the number represented by a deputy from a town.16 This means that in a given county people’s congress, for example, a deputy from the rural area would have been elected by a constituency consisting of 4,000 voters, while a deputy from a town, and sitting in the same people’s congress, would represent only 1,000 voters-resulting in an urban representation four times as great as the rural area. Towns with a very small population (often the case in isolated areas) also elect deputies, even if their number of voters is below the minimum for a constituency. Article 11 stipulates that in other jurisdictions, the urban population per deputy should be less than that of the rural population, but does not indicate what this ratio should be.

At the provincial and autonomous region level, urban constituencies have five times as many deputies as their rural counterparts. The Election Law does not indicate the number of deputies to be elected, nor the size of the constituency. These are to be determined by the standing committees of the local and provincial people’s congresses. Only the NPC has a legal maximum size: 3,500 delegates. These are elected by the people’s congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. The ratio of urban to rural representation is 8: 1. (Article 13, 14)

A second distinction exists between minorities and Han (ethnic Chinese) voters. The drafters of the election system tried to compensate minorities for scattered communities and their small proportion of the total population. Under Article 15. a national minority with an exceptionally small population has at least one deputy in provincial level people’s congresses. Chapter Four addresses elections among national minorities who might lose considerable representation if their members were counted as equal to the majority Han population. Article 16 states that each minority will have a deputy where they live in compact communities. Deputies from minorities having more than 10 per cent of the total

158 China ‘x I9 79 Election Law and Its Implementation

population in an area will have a representation ratio equal to that of the non-minority community.

Very small communities should also have at least one deputy in the congresses of autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures. autonomous counties and communes and towns where minorities live in compact communities. (Articles 16 and 17) In the case of scattered communities, minorities are allowed to have higher representation ratios than normal at the autonomous region level and below. Article 20 provides that the election process shall be carried on in the community language as well as in Chinese.

To insure that the elections conform to the law, each administrative level establishes an election committee, which varies in size from 11 to 25 members. The election committee of Yuexiu QU in Guangzhou, for example, has 21 members. This includes 5-G members of

the standing committee of the qu congress, congress representatives of the communist party, democratic parties and various circies, including women’s federations, labor unions, and the China Youth League. The election committee also has staff members who are not congress deputies. During an election, the election committee has a temporary working office, organized by the secretariat of the local congress.

Article Seven of the 1979 Election Law stipulates that an election committee shall preside over the election of deputies to the peoples congress at its own level, and be responsible to the congress standing committee or to the people’s government at the commune and township (.&en) levels. Under the 1953 law, the election committee was appointed by the next higher level of government, and their memberships were strictly specified in terms of size. Currently, an election committee has a chairman and assistant chairman. It varies in size, and has representatives from the CCP, democratic parties, and people’s organizations.t7 The election committee reports to the standing committee of the people’s congress-a shift from the executive to the legislative branch. Eiection committee members are nominated by the local congress standing committee, and the election committee reports to it. In Guilin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, one-third of the last election committee were also members of the standing committee. The formal purpose of the election committee is to insure that elections are carried out in conformity to the election law. In several instances, local election committees declared particular elections invalid, and required them to be held again, indicating that its role is more than mere formality.

Election Districts (Xunnqu)

Prior to 1979, election districts were based on area alone. Under Article 22 of the new law an election district is defined in one of four ways: (1) production unit (for example, factories), (2) business unit (and institutions including schools and universities), (3) working unit (government organs), and (4) residential area. In practice, there are three types of election district: (1) independent election district, consisting of a single unit, such as a factory; (2) joint election district, consisting of several units; and (3) mixed election district, such as a combination of a factory and residence units. Each election district elects l-5 deputies. In Shanghai, reguiar meetings between voters and their deputies are encouraged, and such activity increases as the next election approaches.

The major distinction in election district is urban versus rural-basically an economic difference which produces political distinctions. Urban units were defined as those where residents purchase their grain with coupons, and grain is provided by the state. Rural units,


in contrast, produce their own grain. Economic principles of production and occupation take precedence over residence in demarcating election districts. Elections are held to select representatives who are expected to aggregate the concerns of the community to the

congress, to use political power to improve living and working conditions, and to serve as an additional line of communication between the leadership and the masses.

Examples of the Election System

During the summer of 1983 and autumn of 1984, I visited a number of regions in China in order to examine the new election system and the operation of the 1979 election law. Some examples of election operation below will help to clarify a few characteristics of the Chinese system. My visits did not coincide with actual elections, but I was able to interview more than sixty officials and members of various levels of people’s congresses. I was unable to determine constituency size, electoral results, or other electoral information in a systematic fashion because local officials were unable or unwilling to provide access to records which

are public in many other countries. Nevertheless, the interviews did yield a preliminary overview of the system.

Shanghai County

Shanghai xtin is located in Shanghai, Municipality shi. The eighth county congress was elected in 1984 and consists of 403 elected members: male-325 (80.5%) female-78 (19.3%). By age, members were as follows: below 36 years-79 (19.6%); 36-55-269 (66.7%); above 55 years of age-55 (13.65 %). In the county congress, there are 299 (74.1%) members of the communist party, 2 members of the China Youth League, 5 deputies from the ‘democratic parties’, 6 non-patty, and 91 representatives of the masses (non-party). Two deputies are of the Hui minority, and one is a Hami from Yunnan, with the remainder belonging to the Han group.

In terms of education, 67 congress deputies (16.63 %) have graduated from university or college, 221 (58.4%) from middle school, 30 from specialized middle school, and 82 from primary school, with 3 illiterates. The county congress included 72 workers, 106 peasants, 6 members of the PLA, 63 cadres who were heads @hang) of xiang, &en, or higher levels, 55 intellectuals, 2 Chinese who had returned from abroad, 28 ‘patriotic Chinese’ (defined broadly as non-party, democratic party, Catholics, industrialists and overseas Chinese), and others.

The Shanghai county congress meets once a year, as stipulated in Article 11 of the ‘Organic Law for Local People’s Congresses and Local People’s Governments’, adopted by the NPC on 1 July 1979. la The meetings usually last for about seven working days in March (including preparatory meetings). The meetings discuss the work report of the congress standing committee, elect the people’s government (usually approval of slate presented by the standing committee), and hold deliberations on the judicial organs, the budget, and the final accounts. The congress elects the heads of the local courts and passes various resolutions presented to it. The deputies discuss and pass resolutions on education, health and other affairs. In recent meetings, there has been more attention to crime, including economic ones such as inflation of commodity prices. Usually, the congress merely approves reports presented by the standing committee. On important questions, the congress will pass a resolution, which the government must implement.

Article three of the Organic Law states that ‘The local people’s congresses at various levels are local organs of state power’. The local congress has the power to supervise the

160 China ‘s 1979 Electron Law and Its Implementation

people’s government, court system, and procuratorate, but this is usually done by the standing committee, whose members cannot serve concurrently in the people’s government, court, or procuratorate (‘Organic Law’, Article 26).

Deputies also engage in supervision over government work through inspection tours, consideration of reports at the congress meetings, and participation in small groups (xiaozu) which undertake supervision of specialized sectors of activity every three months. There are 35 xMozu in the Shanghai county congress. In general, these are organized around the election districts, and provide contact among deputies when the congress is not in session. Members of the congress standing committee also attend these smaller meetings. The deputies in session appoint and dismiss the personnel of the people’s government, and issue appointment certificates. This approval is accomplished by a show of hands in the meeting.

The standing committee handles congress affairs when the congress is not in session. In Shanghai county, the committee consists of a chairman, four vice chairmen and 14 ordinary members. There is a standing committee secretariat which handles administrative affairs. The committee meets every two months and is divided into five sub-committees: legislation; finance and economics; science, technology, and culture; local (xiang and zhen) construction; and personnel (appointments and dismissals).

The congress and government of Shanghai county are subordinate to Shanghai Shi, a municipality directly under the central government (zhixiazhz] which is administratively equal to a province. It consists of 12 urban qu and 10 rural x&z. Each of these 22 units has a congress elected directly by voters. It should be noted that these lower level congresses are not elected at large, but by voters who elect congress deputies within their election districts. (The structural parallel is the US House of Representatives, or British House of Commons, rather than the US Senate.) Subordinate to Shanghai county is Maqiao commune, which was in the process of conversion into a x&g in August 1983. It is divided into election districts, such as several factories and production brigades. Some municipal factories have established processing plants in the xzizng, including a local shirt factory. The Shanghai factory provides materials and machinery for the local workshop which uses workers who might otherwise move to the city for employment. The Maqiao shirt factory, with several hundred workers, serves as a single election district in thexrizng, and elects three representatives to the congress.

In the 1981 election, there were 345 candidates for 195 seats in the Maqiao commune congress. With a working and voting population of 22,000, this meant an average of one representative for each 112 voters. In the first round of nominations, there had been more than 500 names proposed. Deputies were directly elected by voters for two-year terms. Each of the twenty production brigades served as an election district, and had two deputies in the commune congress (Gongshe renmin daibiao dahui). Several schools in the commune were consolidated to form an election district. In 1984 Maqiao had become a xiang, and held new elections for the local congress.

Prior to 1958, rural China had been divided intoxian, x&g, andcun. Thexting level of government was replaced by the people’s commune until autumn 1983, and thexiang has been revived. In Shanghai shi’s Jiading county, the x.&g government is divided into offices of finance, culture and education, birth control, construction, and civil affairs. The leading personnel, including the x&g hang andfu xiung zhang, are elected by the xiang congress. The x&g rhang reports to the county government, and has a three year term of office. Jiading county has 23 xiung and 40 &en. Of the 63 xiang thang and rhen rhang, 47 are males and 16 females. Twelve are under 35 years of age, and most are middle school graduates. The oldest was 50 in 1984. Fifty-five are CCP members and eight are non-party.

ROBERT E. BEDESKI

Urban Shanghai

161

In urban China, the district, or qu, people’s congress is the highest level elected directly by

citizens. In Shanghai, the qu congresses have extensive detailed regulations on the election process, which are designed to conform to the election law as well as to Shanghai’s local conditions. Voters’ lists are carefully compiled for completeness. In Shanghai’s Jing An qu, more than 385,800 voters elected their congress. The qu consists of 179 election districts, with each electing l-5 deputies. After the election districts are demarcated before an election, and registration has been completed, voters are organized into voters’ groups (xuanminban). Units or individuals then submitted their nominations. In the first round of nominations, there were 10,536 citizen nominations and 51 unit nominations, with a total of 10,587. Next, the voters’ groups held discussions to reduce the list of nominees to a more manageable number. The majority of voters’ group leaders were not CCP members.

To assure ‘correct’ composition of the congress, the local congress standing committee indicated quotas of candidates within various categories. Election propaganda noted the types of persons which were needed in the congress. Thus, indirect pressure, or guidance, reduced the spectrum of voter choice. At meetings of the voters’ groups, nominees explained their backgrounds and were asked questions about how they will serve the masses if elected. Supplementary notices were issued two days before final registration to insure that all potential voters were included in the rolls. Voting was described as a personal matter. A standard ballot was used in Shanghai, and each unit was responisble for its format. Voters came to the polling place, showed their identification and then received their ballot. Supervisors were present to watch for irregularities. Two methods could be used. The first was to vote at meetings of the unit, and to sit together when marking the ballot. The second was regular balloting, with curtained enclosures for marking the ballot. Composition of the eighth Jing An congress (and probably all other local congresses) represents directives of local leadership rather than the ‘will of the community’. The election of October 1983 produced the following membership: (Figures do not total the congress membership of 340 because of overlapping membership in some categories.)

Workers 96 Cadres, managers. youths 67 Intellectuals, teachers, scientists, cultural workers 89 Democratic parties, mass organizations 37 PLA 4 Retired residents 41 Police 2

Women 112

The eighth congress has a membership of 340, a reduction from the previous congress which had 451 deputies. The age of deputies ranges from 20 to 76, with the average age at around 50. In general, the average age has been declining in most congresses.

One of the Jing An congress deputies interviewed was Mr Wei, who is 54 years old, and was elected twice to the congress. He is classified as an intellectual, and works as a designer. He came to China from Indonesia in 1965, and is a vice-chairman of the standing committee. He and another deputy represent election district number 40, which consists of eight units and 2,000 voters. Mr Wei’s own unit has 200 voters. In his election campaign, he went to each unit and explained his activities and achievements in the seventh congress. Among his congress activities, he occasionally contacts the qu government on behalf of constituents. He complained about a flower container in the middle of a street which was

162 China ‘s 1979 Election Law and Its Implementation

then removed as a traffic hazard. He also sought and achieved better street lighting. He has been concerned with problems of housing, and complains to the Housing Bureau of the qu

about the lack of running water. To insure that the suggestions and complaints of deputies are implemented, many congresses have procedures to follow up the actions of the government. In the case of Mr Wei, he has received questionnaires after submissions of suggestions asking if he is satisfied with the government action. Individuals often come to

his home with problems. He also reserves a half day per week for meeting with constituents. He participates in various inspection tours to examine qu hygiene, environment, inflation,

and consumer problems. His activities are similar to those of other deputies interviewed in China.

When the county and qu have completed their elections, the deputies then select representatives to the Shanghai shi congress. The 22 congresses elected 95 3 deputies to the eighth municipal congress. The PLA held its own elections for 24 deputies in the Shanghai congress, bringing the total of 977 deputies elected under the supervision of the standing committee of the municipal congress, in accordance with Articles 11 and 12 of the election law.‘9 The process of election to the municipal/provincial level was described as consisting of nominations and repeated discussions (called ‘brewing’ oryunniang). Nominations came from the CCP in consultations with the democratic parties and people’s organizations, or from among the deputies. The official candidates usually had precedence, and nominations were not restricted to deputies of the districts (qu) or county congress. In Sichuan I met deputies to the municipal congress who had been unaware that their names were presented for nomination at the time of discussions. In Shanghai, the number of candidates was at least 20 per cent greater than the number of deputies elected. Similar to the lower levels, the municipal congress elects a standing committee, passes local legislation, resolutions, and elects the delegation to the next higher level congress-in this case, the National People’s Congress.

Yangshuo County, Guongxi Autonomous Region

The case of Deputy Guo illustrates the importance of the danwei, or working unit. The danwei, rather than the place of residence usually takes priority in the determination of electoral districts. Candidates and voters must all belong to the same election district. Mr Guo is a member of the xian people’s congress, is forty years old, and has been in the party since 1980. A graduate of the provincial Institute of Agriculture and Industry, he is currently a writer in the Yangshuo County Cultural Bureau. For administrative and election purposes, he is assigned to the 127-person ‘art and culture circle (w&j’, which constitutes an electoral district for the county and zhen congresses. His wen consists of five working units, which served as voting groups at election time. The largest had 55 persons. Although Guo’s danwei was one of the smallest (seven members), he was elected to the 9th County congress, with 97 votes-indicating that working units do not necessarily vote as blocs. (In Chengdu, I was told that important units in some factories are sometimes under represented in the local people’s congress because the number of workers is not as great as in other units.) Deputy Guo attributed his electoral success (after prodding to put aside modesty) to his cultural achievements. He had written a book which won national awards, and a play in the local operatic style, ‘Dividing Property among Brothers’, which had also won awards. He thus attributed his election to cultural achievements rather than to political factors. Guo was elected to represent his 127-voter circle, which nominated five candidates at the begin- ning of the election process. The two runner-up candidates were sent to the .&en congress as representatives. They also were in cultural work-one in a local film company, and the other in a cultural troupe.


Mr Shen is also a deputy to the 9th Yangshuo county congress. A 45-year-old former dock worker with 19 years service in the local neighborhood committee, he now spends full time in politics, and does not belong to a political party. His main work before the election consisted of conflict mediation and finding employment for workers. In his area, 130 young people set up enterprises with bank loans. This is the first election to the county congress. His election district consisted of the neighborhood committee area.20 These are responsible for grass roots urban administration and provide the major link between party leadership and the urban residents who are not part of other organizations, and excluded workers in factories and government, who voted in their own danwei. Agricultural workers who live in the area are also excluded from voting in the neighborhood. His district included workers in small enterprises and residents not registered in other voting units. The election unit had seven nominations in the first round, and through ‘brewing’, two remained into the second round. In the election, Mr Shen won 222 of 223 votes. (Mr Shen only smiled when I suggested that the lone dissenting vote had probably been his own.) In the county congress, he planned to pay special attention to urban beautification and environmental problems.

The election law makes special provision for minorities (Chapter 4). Although many Zhuang minority members have been assimilated into Han culture, they are still eligible for legal privileges. Mr Zhang, a Zhuang peasant who sits in the Yangshuo county congress as deputy from Puti xiang, comes from a family which hasn’t spoken Zhuang for four generations. He said that his five-member family’s lifestyle is completely Han now. and that he has assimilated in everything except legal status. As a minority family, they are given preferential treatment. In periods of hardship, the government provides quilts, padded clothing, and other items of daily use. The government also extends relief to minorities during the annual spring famine in the region, and often not to the Han. These benefits were not interrupted during the cultural revolution, according to Mr Zhang, when minority members also divided into factions. Zhuangs must conform to birth control policy, although members of the Yao and Tong minorities are exempt.

Deputy Zhang had served on the eighth county congress and was re-elected to the ninth congress. He serves on the local village committee (cun hu~),~r the rural counterpart to the urban neighborhood committee, containing over 1,900 voters and 2,800 residents. This is divided into eleven natural villages, and during the elections, five election districts. Each election district was comprised of two or three natural villages. Deputy Zhang’s election district had a total of approximately 450 persons, or 320 voters. In the last election, he won 196 votes.

Guilin, Direct Qu Elections

In the election of November 1980, Guilin Shi was divided into one urban qu and one suburban qu with a total population of roughly 390,000. Subsequently a rural xian was added. By 1983 the&i had four qu, and eight communes (xiang). Each unit had a congress elected directly by voters. The four urban qu had a total of 224 election districts and 250,000 voters, with 430 election districts and 68,000 voters in the eight ruralxiung. The 12 congresses in Guilin shi have a total of 1,342 deputies. In the four urban qu congress, there is a total of 495 deputies, broken down as follows: Xiufeng qu 124 deputies; Xiangshan qu, 154; Qixing qu, 100; Diecai qu, 117.

Xiufeng qu contains 60 election districts. The qu election district allocates the number of deputies to be elected by each election district to the qu congress. When the election district knows its allotment of deputies, it then proceeds to organize the nominating procedure-there must be more candidates than seats. During registration and balloting,

t&i (;hinu ‘s f979 Election kc and Its ~~~~~~e~~t~~~

local personnel were selected to insure procedural regularity. The election committees also delegated persons to observe the elections.

Each election district is divided into neighborhood election groups-X~~~~~ xiaazu, or voters’ groups, which usually coincide with working or residence unit. Each voter belongs to only one voters’ group. in Guilin, the voters’ group varies from 10 to 40 persons in size. Membership is according to place of work or residence. The voters’ group elects its leaders.

After nominations close, the voters’ group has 15 days to ‘brew’ the number of nominees to the maximum list of candidates. (Although Guilin officials claimed that the qtl does not generally veto this list, members of a Guangzhou qu government told me that the categories ‘suggested’ by the qu standing committee are almost always followed-that is, quotas for women, workers, minorities etc. They could recall only one case where a local election district’s nominations had differed with higher suggestions.] The list of nominees is publicized. In Guilin, these lists were posted in public places, with names, danu~ei, age, education, and nationality. The brewing process may require several rounds. Nominees are usually known by the voters, and so prestige, personal relations and ‘face’ are involved. If the list of nominees is still too long after three or four rounds of brewing, then a primary election @u xuan) must be held to select the candidates for the official election. Usually the slate has been decided by the third round. In this way, voters are educated, and consensus is achieved on support for the candidates and the electoral process. When the qa and xiung have elected their congresses, these deputies then choose the 323 representatives to the Guilin municipai congress.

Conclusions

The congress and election system represent a mixture of the basic system which existed prior to the cultural revolution and of ‘bourgeois democratic elements’. Socialist legality is stressed, while the congresses and deputies are cautiously exploring the possibilities of the new environment. The party maintains strict leadership in the development of the new congress system, but is showing signs of loosening its grip as Iong as there is no challenge to its ultimate sovereignty. The democratic parties are playing a role and have their nominees sitting in the congresses which I examined. Their main arena of activity remains the national and local People’s Political Consultative Conferences, which are the institutional expressions of the united front.

The efected deputies I met and interviewed took seriously their position as a mandate to work on behalf of their constituents under party guidance. Local affairs such as beautification, pollution, traffic, living conditions, minority nationality problems, construction, employment and education occupied their time in ~~ussions in the congress, and in their inspection tours. The new election and congress system seeks to avoid creating a class of professional politicians. A number of the deputies appeared to be enthusiastic and competent amateurs whose primary orientation was to their unit and profession.

Skepticism is a useful attitude in the study of politics, but it is indispensable in the examination of China. The Chinese election system is not democratic in western terms, but it goes far beyond the Soviet system insofar as giving voters some degree of participation and choice. Beijing seems to have chosen a path of cautious reform of political institutions in the context of socialist legality.

Notes and References

1. A summary of developments in 1984 can be found in Thomas P. Bernstein, ‘China in 1984: The Year of Hong Kong’, Asian Swvey, 25:1, 1985, pp. 33-50.


2. Hedley Bull underlines the importance of the modem state in providing order on a local scale. Stephen R. Graubard (editor), The State, (NY: W. W. Norton, 1979), p. 115.

3. Alexander Passerin d’Entreves, The Notion of the State; An Introduction to Political Theory, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).

4. Annie Kriegel, ‘The Nature of the Communist System; Notes on State, Party, and Society’, in: Graubard, op. cit., p. 146.

5. Hsin-chi Kuan considers the new document to be an ‘Inclusion Constitution’, which means that the ruling party attempts to integrate itself with society, rather than to insulate itself from the social system. ‘New Departures in China’s Constitution’, Studies in Comparative Communism, 7:1, Spring 1984, p. 54.

6. People i Daily, 19 October 1978, p. 1, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service, (FBIS), 20 October 1978, p. ES.

7. On the notion of natural rights, see Fa Xue Cidion, (Law Dictionary), (Shanghai: Cishu Chubanshe, 1980), p. 53; and Jianming Sbehui Kexue Cidian (A Concise Social Science Dictionary), (Shanghai: Cidian Chubanshe, 1982), p. 105.

8. ‘Document of CCP’s Central Committee Cbung;fa (1980) No. 66.‘. Issues and Studies, 17:3, March 198 1. In the same speech, Deng indicates that party members have a legal status different from that of ordinary citizens: ‘All citizens are equal before the law and the system just as all Party members are equal before the Party Constitution and subject to Party discipline.’ p. 93.

9. See K. Yegorov, ‘Changes in China’s State Structure’, Far &tern Affairs, No. 3, 1980, pp. 78-89.

10. Victor Zaslavsky, and Robert Brym, ‘The functions of elections in the USSR’, .Scwiet Studies, 30:3, July 1978, pp. 367 ff.

11. Xinbua Domestic Service, 7 March 1983, in FBIS, 8 March 1983, pp. Kl-3. 12. Main Documents of the Second Session of the F&ftb National People’s Congress of the PRC,

(Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1979), p. 197. 13. See Robert E. Bedeski, State-Building in Modern Cbinu: The Guominahg in the Prewar Period,

(Berkeley: University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies, 1981). 14. Brantly Womack correctly sees this distinction due to ideology: ‘This preference for urban

representation is justified by the leading role of the urban proletariat in the dictatorship of the proletariat and by the key importance of cities in modernization.’ ‘The 1980 County-Level Elections in China: Experiment in Democratic Modernization’, Asian Survey, XXU:3, March 1982, p. 264. My own research in China indicates that the maldistribution of representation has also been affected by local factors, administrative convenience, and policies which are now favoring intellectuals,

15. Zhang Qingfu, ‘Lun Wo Guo di Xuanju Zhidu’ (On China’s Electoral System), Fa Xue (Studies in ILZW), No. 6, 1980, p. 42.

16. On the proportions of representation under the 1953 Law, see Robert E. Bedeski, ‘The Formation of National Society in Modern China: The Convergence of Traditions’, The Review of Poktics, 33:4, 1971, pp. 467-88.

17. On the work of the election committees in the 1953-54 elections, see James R. Townsend, Political Participation in Communist China, (Berkeley: University of California, 1969), pp. 126-7.

18. Translated in FBIS, 27 July 1979, ‘Supplement’. 19. The operative principle of Article 12 is that a rural deputy shall represent five times as many

people as an urban deputy. 20. Yangshuo zben has two such committees. 2 1. The local township consists of eight cun bui and one neighborhood committee.