TITLE:
Research on the Practical Benefits of Chinese-Style Democracy in Rural China: Based on the Cases of 20 Villages in Zhejiang Province, China
AUTHORS:
Si’ao Liao, Qingyao Zhang, Wentao Lin, Wenjing Zhao, Zhiqin Chen
KEYWORDS:
Rural Governance, Chinese-Style Democracy, Cases in Zhejiang Province
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.9,
September
15,
2025
ABSTRACT: Whole-process people’s democracy, core to Chinese-style democracy, sees China emphasizing rural effectiveness. Zhejiang, a reform forerunner, serves as a case: field research in 20 national demonstration villages highlights its “Five-Governance Integration” model, a holistic framework combining political leadership, rule of law, virtue-based social norms, grassroots self-governance, and digital intelligent governance. Dilemmas in Zhejiang’s rural democratic governance include: exogenous-endogenous conflicts; hollowing-out from absent subjects; disconnection between grassroots democracy and practice; model homogenization/rigidity; and regional disparities in effectiveness. Measures proposed include: deepening “embedded collaborative governance” to integrate administration and autonomy; boosting villagers’ self-governance for co-construction/sharing; optimizing resources to embed democracy in practice; innovating methods to upgrade the model; and building inter-village platforms to leverage demo villages.