Halfway House: China and Local Democratic Participation
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Maggie Callahan
February 13, 2020
As an authoritarian state, China is not known for its adherence to democratic norms and widespread citizen participation in government. Guangming village, however, provides a fascinating example of local democratic participation in the context of a national government that disavows such participation.
Villages in China have collective economic benefits that each resident is entitled to by virtue of living in the village. Traditionally, upon marriage, the bride moves in with the groom. The husband’s village along with the husband then become responsible for his wife’s welfare. Following household registration reforms, women no longer have to take on their husband’s residence and children are allowed to register at either their mother or father’s residence.
These reforms posed a peculiar problem: if the woman maintained her residence, is she still entitled to her home village’s collective benefits? These women, who maintain their residence registration following marrying outside the village, are known as married-out women. These women often choose to stay in their home village to maintain family relations, job opportunities and friendships. Despite remaining in the village, married-out women are denied their share of its collective benefits because of their marriage.
Married-out women insist that they are entitled to their share of the village’s collective benefits, but villagers are hesitant to share their benefits with women who have the additional support of a husband outside the village. The Guangming village’s local government brought together its 230 voting age residents to discuss the issue and reach a collective decision on how to handle married-out women’s share of the village’s collective benefits.
Each interest group advocating for different vantage points was allowed to contribute to briefing materials. These briefing materials were distributed at the beginning of the group meeting. The materials outlined the differences of each position and the issues that would be deliberated.
After reading the briefing material, villagers participated in large and small group discussions. In small group discussions, each citizen was required to speak and express their opinion. Following small groups, large group discussions were moderated by graduate students from Shenzhen University. These students were trained on facilitating group discussion at university, so they did not express their personal opinions and took no side.
Surveys were taken before and after the large and small group deliberations. The results indicate that the discussion did change villagers’ opinions on the issues. Following the deliberations, a larger portion of the villagers thought the issue was important and more were sympathetic to the plight of the married-out women.
Ultimately, the local government resolved the issue using the solution that garnered the most support following the deliberations. Married-out women would remain ineligible for collective benefits, but they would get a one-time payment from the village in the form of a 100 square meter house. This result proves that China is a half-way house in multiple ways. The solution is not exactly what either party wanted but does represent a compromise with married-out women receiving some benefit and villagers giving up some benefit. Further, Guangming is only one of many villages that allow for and facilitate local democratic participation, providing a halfway house for democracy in an authoritarian country.
To learn more about this case visit https://participedia.net/case/4899. To read about other innovative applications of public participation, visit www.participedia.net.
Author: Maggie Callahan biography: Maggie Callahan is a master’s student of public diplomacy at Syracuse University and a graduate assistant for the Participedia Project at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She holds a bachelor’s in political science and economics from Mercer University and has worked in Georgian, Moroccan and Nepalese nongovernmental organizations and the American government. Follow her on Twitter: @laissezmaggie
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Halfway House: China and Local Democratic Participation
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Maggie Callahan
February 13, 2020
As an authoritarian state, China is not known for its adherence to democratic norms and widespread citizen participation in government. Guangming village, however, provides a fascinating example of local democratic participation in the context of a national government that disavows such participation.
Villages in China have collective economic benefits that each resident is entitled to by virtue of living in the village. Traditionally, upon marriage, the bride moves in with the groom. The husband’s village along with the husband then become responsible for his wife’s welfare. Following household registration reforms, women no longer have to take on their husband’s residence and children are allowed to register at either their mother or father’s residence.
These reforms posed a peculiar problem: if the woman maintained her residence, is she still entitled to her home village’s collective benefits? These women, who maintain their residence registration following marrying outside the village, are known as married-out women. These women often choose to stay in their home village to maintain family relations, job opportunities and friendships. Despite remaining in the village, married-out women are denied their share of its collective benefits because of their marriage.
Married-out women insist that they are entitled to their share of the village’s collective benefits, but villagers are hesitant to share their benefits with women who have the additional support of a husband outside the village. The Guangming village’s local government brought together its 230 voting age residents to discuss the issue and reach a collective decision on how to handle married-out women’s share of the village’s collective benefits.
Each interest group advocating for different vantage points was allowed to contribute to briefing materials. These briefing materials were distributed at the beginning of the group meeting. The materials outlined the differences of each position and the issues that would be deliberated.
After reading the briefing material, villagers participated in large and small group discussions. In small group discussions, each citizen was required to speak and express their opinion. Following small groups, large group discussions were moderated by graduate students from Shenzhen University. These students were trained on facilitating group discussion at university, so they did not express their personal opinions and took no side.
Surveys were taken before and after the large and small group deliberations. The results indicate that the discussion did change villagers’ opinions on the issues. Following the deliberations, a larger portion of the villagers thought the issue was important and more were sympathetic to the plight of the married-out women.
Ultimately, the local government resolved the issue using the solution that garnered the most support following the deliberations. Married-out women would remain ineligible for collective benefits, but they would get a one-time payment from the village in the form of a 100 square meter house. This result proves that China is a half-way house in multiple ways. The solution is not exactly what either party wanted but does represent a compromise with married-out women receiving some benefit and villagers giving up some benefit. Further, Guangming is only one of many villages that allow for and facilitate local democratic participation, providing a halfway house for democracy in an authoritarian country.
To learn more about this case visit https://participedia.net/case/4899. To read about other innovative applications of public participation, visit www.participedia.net.
Author: Maggie Callahan biography: Maggie Callahan is a master’s student of public diplomacy at Syracuse University and a graduate assistant for the Participedia Project at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She holds a bachelor’s in political science and economics from Mercer University and has worked in Georgian, Moroccan and Nepalese nongovernmental organizations and the American government. Follow her on Twitter: @laissezmaggie
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