Grassroots Democracy and Local Governance: Evidence from Rural China

Wang, Shuna; Yao, Yang

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.10.014

Cited by 96 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Xiaobo Zhang, Shenggen Fan, Linxiu Zhang, and Jikun Huang (2004) found that village elections increased the share of public investment in village expenditures using a sample from Jiangsu province, China. Shuna Wang and Yang Yao (2007) found similar results using a larger sample covering eight Chinese provinces. Li Yang Yao (2005, 2006) further found that village elections helped to reduce the negative impacts of health shocks on farmers' income and strengthen farmers' consumption smoothing capabilities.…”

supporting

confidence: 63%

Does grassroots democracy reduce income inequality in China?

Shen

Yao

2008

Journal of Public Economics

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Using village and household survey data collected from 48 villages of eight Chinese provinces for the period 1986-2002, this paper studies how the introduction of village elections affects income distribution at the village level. We estimate both a static fixed-effect panel model and a dynamic panel model for the within-village Gini coefficient and take care of the endogeneity of the introduction of elections. The dynamic panel model shows that having elections reduces the Gini coefficient by 0.04, or 14.3% of the sample average. We also find that elections tend to increase the income shares of poorer portions of the population. Further econometric analysis based on dynamic panel models shows that elections increase per-capita public expenditures by 271 Yuan, but do not increase the level or progressiveness of net or total income transfer in a village. Therefore, elections' positive role in reducing income inequality is not played through more income redistribution, but through more pro-poor public investment. Keywords Grassroots democracy; Income distribution; Dynamic panel modelThere is a growing interest in studying the role of local political institutions in promoting economic growth and equality. This paper adds to the literature by accomplishing two objectives. One is to test whether democratization of Chinese villages centered at the village election has resulted in more equal income distribution within the village in the last twenty years. Besides its possible consequences on social justice, a topic frequently tackled at the national level, income inequality may result in more adverse effects in a local community in terms of public goods provision (Bardhan and Mookherjee, 2005), health outcomes, and for that matter, local economic growth (see Angus Deaton, 2003 for a critical survey). Our other objective is to find out the channel(s) by which village elections have improved income * We thank Abhijit Banerjee, Samuel Bowels, Esther Duflo, Justin Lin, John Strauss, Xiaobo Zhang, two anonymous referees, and participants of the conference "Liberalization experiences in Asia: A normative appraisal" (January 12-13, 2006, Delhi), the 2006 NBER-CCER Annual Conference (June 30-July 2, 2006, Beijing), the 2007 GDN conference (January 14-18, 2007, Beijing), and seminars in the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Renmin University, the East Asian Institute, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the Institute for Rural Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Cornell University, Washington University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, The New School, New York University, Colgate University, and Colby College for their valuable comments. We also thank Dwayne Benjamin, Loren Brandt and John Giles for their generosity to share with us part of their data. Mengtao Gao, Ang Sun, Shuna Wang, and Shenwei Zhang provided excellent research assistance. We are grateful for financial supports from the Chinese Medical Board and the National 211 Projects Fund and thank the excellent data...

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supporting

confidence: 63%

Does grassroots democracy reduce income inequality in China?

Shen

Yao

2008

Journal of Public Economics

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“…Currently, democratic elections are common in almost every village, and the outcomes are quite encouraging, enhancing the accountability of the committee. In particular, the process has increased public spending while simultaneously reducing the share of administrative spending in the village budget, improving income distribution, and leading to more public investment (Zhang et al 2004;Wang and Yao 2007;Shen and Yao forthcoming).…”

Section: A Case For the Washington Consensusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Disinterested Government: An Interpretation of China’s Economic Success in the Reform Era

Yao¹

2013

Achieving Development Success

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractIn the last 30 years, China has achieved high economic growth and successfully transformed its economy from a planned economy to a market-based system. The country, to a large extent, has attained success through the recommendations proposed by standard economic theory. However, the role of political economy has been omitted from the literature: how did China adopt the right economic policies and the appropriate road to reform? This paper attempts to answer this question. The central assumption of the paper is that China achieved success because the Chinese government has been a disinterested party, i.e., a government that does not favour any particular sections of the population and prioritizes the long-term welfare of the whole society. In this paper, we first define and analyse the concept of disinterested governments, and then proceed to provide several examples to demonstrate that China has been characterized by a disinterested government. Based on a theoretical model, we also discuss the reasons of the Chinese government becoming a disinterested government.

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“…There seems, however, to be a divide between writers from Europe and North-America (Dalh, 1989 ;Freedom House, 2006 ;Vanhanen, 1997 ;Welzel, 2002) and those from Asia (Fukuyama, 1995 ;Kim, 2007 ;Lee and Shamsul-Haque, 2006 ;Wang and Yao, 2007). The former seem busy in extracting "universal" basic factors, conditions for and ways to measure democracy, while the latter are problematizing the concept and working toward an "indigenization" of democracy within their particular cultural context.…”

Section: Democratic Social Practice : Dilemmas and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Democratic Social Practice and the Emergence of Social Work in China

McNicoll

Yan

2010

nps

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The paper contrasts the conference focus on the democratic renewal of social practices, an internal process particular to the European and North-American contexts, with the development of social practices in China, where both external and internal forces influence social workers’ dealings with democratization and indigenization of well-established Western concepts. The goals of the authors are to problematize the questions of democratic renewal and to promote international communication among social practitioners.

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Grassroots Democracy and Local Governance: Evidence from Rural China

Cited by 96 publications

References 12 publications

Does grassroots democracy reduce income inequality in China?

Does grassroots democracy reduce income inequality in China?

The Disinterested Government: An Interpretation of China’s Economic Success in the Reform Era

Democratic Social Practice and the Emergence of Social Work in China

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