Voting as a Rite: A History of Elections in Modern China by Joshua Hill

Abstract

Reviewed by: Voting as a Rite: A History of Elections in Modern China by Joshua Hill John James Kennedy (bio) Joshua Hill. Voting as a Rite: A History of Elections in Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2019. xi, 297 pp. Paperback $32.00, isbn 978-0-674-23722-3. I have been studying village elections in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1995, and I have come across a variety of local election interpretations from “democratic voting” to “corrupt undemocratic process.” Evidence for both election types exist as well as a wide range of procedures in between. Indeed, some scholars have hailed grassroots elections as “village democracy” while others view these as hollow elections with little meaning or function. Regardless of how western scholars and journalists perceive grassroots or local People’s Congress elections, the intent of the election laws in the PRC is a key factor in how we interpret these election practices. Local and national elections in China are not new, and when examining election laws in the PRC, it is critical to place these elections in historical context. To this end, Joshua Hill provides a fascinating and sobering account of elections in China from the late Qing to the PRC in the 1990s. Several scholars have mentioned that despite the competitiveness and open nomination process we observed in PRC village elections, these elections were not intended to democratize China or villages. The central party-government intention was to have villagers select “good” local leaders as well as connect rural residents to the party-state. Although scholars suggest these elections were never intended to express the will of the people, few were able to place the current development of village elections in the political and historical context. Through careful archival examination of voting laws and procedures, manuals, handbooks, newspapers, and personal accounts, Hill offers an engaging intellectual history of elections in China. To my knowledge, this is the first full historical account detailing the introduction and development of elections in China from the 1890s to the 1990s. Hill skillfully uses the historical record to show that for over a century “Chinese political and intellectual elites have held a stable set of attitudes toward and expectations for elections” (p. 5). These attitudes emphasized state-building rather than the will of the people. Moreover, for the late Qing, the Republican, and PRC leadership, “elected bodies were intended to harmonize, regularize and strengthen the communications between the rulers and those they ruled” (p. 70). Thus, Hill provides an important theoretical contribution to the literature on elections in China. The earliest rational for elections was to select “virtuous” leaders especially after the end of the civil service exam system in 1905. The aim of the civil service exam was to appoint moral leaders well trained in the classics. The new selection procedures allowed a narrow voter registration pool to participate in competitive elections. For example, Tianjin held the first central government-sanctioned [End Page 180] local election in 1907, and less than 3 percent of the population voted in an indirect election. The following year, the central government enacted the first national election law. The intent as well as some of the procedures of the 1908 election law would have implications for the Qing, Republican, and PRC elections. The law limited voter registration and created a two-stage indirect election where voters (about 2 percent of the population) selected candidates for county representatives and then in the second stage these county selectors elected the provincial assembly members. The key point is that the imperial government was able to control the selection of candidates. Moreover, the 1908 election law as well as the proceeding election laws from the 1920s to the 1990s were top-down state-initiated regulations rather than a bottom-up or popular push for greater representation. Hill demonstrates how the press from the late Qing to the PRC played an important role in shaping public opinion on elections rather than reflecting it. Newspapers such as Shenbao and Shibao during the late Qing and Republican period frequently ran stories about the elections, candidates, and the process. The rich detail from these publications and individual accounts brings...