- 期刊
- OpenAccess
Village Elections and Grassroots Corruption in China
摘要
After nearly a quarter century of village elections in China, many now see them as having failed to curb corruption at the grassroots level. A comparative analysis of the development of local elections in the United States and Taiwan suggests that the pathologies found in village elections in mainland China are hardly unique. On the contrary, the advent of local elections in both the United States and Taiwan often led to the emergence of machine politics and the use of the public authority obtained through the ballot box to manipulate the electoral process. In the case of mainland China, local politicians have used many of the same tools (e.g., vote buying) as machine bosses in the United States and Taiwan to suborn the electoral process. Heretofore, they have not created political machines, but nevertheless they often have used their offices for self-enrichment.