Giving Meaning to Elections in Chinese Minority Areas

Abstract

Democratization of minority villages in China is not conceptually distinguishable from that of Han villages probably because democratization is conceived of as a universal type of progress regardless of the country or ethnic origin of the areas, under study. This paper reports on a number of interviews with local minority scholars and cadres at the township and village levels in three minority areas in China and one in Taiwan. The paper will draw a comparison among those ethnic groups. Both China and Taiwan possess. a “human relational culture” while. the latter is institutionally more democratic in politics and more liberal in economics than the former The similarities among the four minority areas are significant. First of all, electoral competition is not of value in any of these ethnic villages. Integration and unity are the major concerns. Competing on the human relational front is more typical than intra-system campaigning. The anxiety over loss of social control is a built-in element, rather than a constraint, of democracy. The family and kinship organizations are by far the most influential factors in election-related discourse. Even though people no longer blindly follow the family position on an issue, the repeated reference to “unity” or “consensus” implies a worldview where the meaning of 4fe begins in the family, the tribe, and the kinship level instead of the individual. Electoral politics has not yet changed the fundamental thinking on the priority of the collective over the individual.