By XU HAO & AN XINZHU

EVERY afternoon, Zhang Sisi, born in 1991, heads out to visit local villagers and collect their opinions on village public affairs. It’s part of her daily routine. Since September 2014, Zhang has worked as an assistant to the Zhouliangzhuang Village Committee of Baodi District, Tianjin.

In addition to advising villagers on policies, issuing certificates and filing information, one of Zhang’s important duties is to convey villagers’ appeals to the village committee and subdistrict office. “By gathering locals’ opinions, we can have a proper, well-informed discussion before making important decisions,” Zhang said. In fact, every administrative village in the subdistrict has a village affairs assistant like Zhang.

In June 2013, amid the progress of grassroots consultative democracy nationwide, Baodi District established the village-level democratic consultation council mechanism, allowing people to extensively and directly participate in the decision-making, management and supervision of village affairs. The village affairs assistant thus facilitates democratic consultation.

In Baodi District, decisions regarding major village affairs, in principle, are based on democratic consultation council discussions.

Land is a big issue in rural areas. With the development of modern agriculture, land circulation – whereby farmers transfer their land-use rights so that dispersed farmland can be centralized for intensive mass agricultural production – has become a trend. However, it is not easy in practice. “Some farmers worry that their land is being taken away,” said Li Guang’en, Party secretary of Zhouliangzhuang Village.

The process of land circulation in Zhouliangzhuang Village was full of twists and turns. “Some villagers, who want to go outside and work as migrant workers, first talked to us (the ‘five-aged council’). They planned to transfer their land-use rights. We then presented their opinion to the village committee and Party branch committee. However, the democratic consultation convened by the two committees found many different opinions. So it fell to us to convince the doubters of the economic benefits of transferring their land-use rights, and they eventually agreed,” villager Zhang Xueyi said.

Seventy-year-old Zhang is a village representative and a member of the village affairs supervisory committee. He is also a member of the “five-aged council,” an advisory panel consisting of prestigious and qualified senior teachers, veterans, cadres, Party members and model workers that play a special role in consultative democracy. Such councils have been in place in Zhouliang Subdistrict since 2012.

Some 30 people from village committee, Party branch committee, the five-aged council and other representative groups attend democratic consultation meetings. In addition to these fixed members, any locals aged 18 or above can participate. If needed, officials or staff workers of the local government and other related people can also join in for on-site supervision and guidance.  

“By inviting highly respected villagers and the parties involved, everyone can voice one’s opinion. On this basis, a final decision will be formed, which will give consideration to the interests of all parties and satisfy everyone,” said Li Guang’en.

When Tianxingzhuang Village implemented land circulation, several households were not in favor. Having worked as the village Party secretary for 18 years, Wang Xuelan was familiar with the methods of rural work. She and her colleagues visited the objecting farmers to find out more about their concerns. “We promised to provide them with training and help them to find jobs in urban areas. Their worries about future dispelled, they finally agreed,” said Wang.

“Simply speaking, consultative democracy refers to dealing with problems through discussion,” explained villager Li Jingquan.

Institutionalizing Established Practices

Mass consultation has always been something of a custom in rural Baodi. According to Li Guang’en, mass consultation has been carried out for several years in his village. “It was not always institutionalized, but the discussion of village affairs has always been transparent, laying a solid foundation for official mass consultation. Today, based on the consultative democracy system, handling village affairs has been streamlined.”   

Wang Xinsheng, head of the Department of Philosophy at Nankai University and a member of the university’s research group on consultative democracy, pointed out: “Traditional Chinese philosophies call for harmony and consultation. If we were to separate the wheat from the chaff and adapt these philosophies to the modern idea of rule of law, civic virtue would be greatly enhanced.”

In October 2013, guidelines on carrying out grassroots consultative democracy were formulated and began to be implemented in Baodi District, which marked the start of institutionalizing consultative democracy in the countryside. According to the guidelines, affairs discussed by a village-level democratic consultation council are classified into major issues and general issues. Village-level major issues may include village self-governance rules, enactment and revision of village regulations and non-government agreements, local development programs, construction planning and relevant adjustments, annual working and budget plans, land transfer, and land requisition compensation, to name a few. Issues like recommendation of model residents, applications for village-level subsidies and dispute settlements are listed as general issues.

In Baodi District, consultative democracy is carried out in a procedure involving topic setting, examination and approval, democratic consultation, voting, public notification and implementation. Topics for discussion are usually proposed by the village committee and Party branch committee or collected from villagers’ opinions via different channels. The committees, along with the village committee assistant, examine the proposals and set an agenda, and details of the time, place and content of the consultative meeting are publicized. Opinions and suggestions of attendees at the meeting are gathered and majority opinions taken as outcomes to be examined and verified by upper levels. For topics without any outcomes, a further consultation is held afterwards. The official replies from the upper levels are transmitted to the public without delay. In doing so, the outcomes of mass consultation are confirmed as the base for decision-making on village-level major affairs.

Some of the villages in Baodi formulate rules for discussion on the basis of their individual situations. For example, the rules of Zhouliangzhuang Village explicitly stipulate the types of meetings, decision-making methods, scopes and procedures, as well as the implementation and supervision on the agreed decisions.  

The consultative system has helped villagers change their attitudes. Zheng Fengrong, a 50-year-old from Zhouliangzhuang Village, was dubious at first when the council planned to launch a regulation on dog management. “Why do I need to have my dogs vaccinated and registered?” she complained when asked for comment. “And why can’t I unleash my dogs? It’s the countryside!” But proponents of the regulation put forward some convincing arguments concerning safety and hygiene that Zheng accepted. “We all had our say and were happy with the outcome,” said Zheng.