Self-Governance and Community

Abstract

This article has three objectives: 1) to assess the contribution of villager self-government to the development of community councils in urban China; 2) to discuss whether there are lessons to be learned from the experiments in urban community councils relevant to the building of rural communities; and 3) most importantly, to raise theoretical issues common to both villager self-government and urban community councils. In fulfilling these three aims, this article will further understanding of the expansion of grassroots democracy and increasing citizens’ participation in China. The article’s comparative approach will incorporate an analysis of the institutionalization of the ‘Four Democracies’ at the village level and the extent to which they are also being implemented in the different and varying circumstances of the urban experiments and environments. We are interested in whether the villagers’ committees and residents’ committees, especially the latter in their restyled community status, are training grounds for citizenship. The different human landscapes of village and community, however, will have a profound effect on the nature and exercise of citizenship.