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本文探讨20世纪80年代以来村民委员会选举的社会效应问题。通常讲,民主起源于社会:社会发展自发地产生政治参与的诉求,形成有凝聚力和自主性的公民社会,从而自下而上地推动民主化进程。然而在某些特定条件下,公民社会也可能形成于民主萌芽之后,即先有国家自上而下推行的基层有限民主,再逐步孕育公民社会。二者殊途同归,最终完成民主转型。笔者认为,村委会选举有可能成为这类渐进民主的一个案例。二十多年来,在中央和地方政府的引导下,村民选举在制度建设、程序规范、过程开放、群众参与、公平竞争等各方面都取得了长足的进步。其结果是,农村社区的凝聚力和自主性都得到了加强,可谓初显农村公民社会的雏形,其深远意义远不止于基层选举本身。
This article explores the social effects of village committee elections since the 1980s. Generally speaking, democracy originated from society: the spontaneous development of society requires the formation of political participation, and the formation of a cohesive and autonomous civil society that will promote the process of democratization from the bottom up. However, under certain conditions, civil society may also emerge after the germination of democracy, that is, the limited grassroots-level democracy pursued by the top-down countries in the precedent and the progressive birth of civil society. Both go through the same process and eventually complete the democratic transition. In my opinion, the election of village committees is likely to become a case of such progressive democracy. Over the past 20 years, with the guidance of the central and local governments, the villagers’ election has made great strides in the aspects of system construction, procedural standardization, process opening up, mass participation and fair competition. As a result, the cohesion and autonomy of rural communities have been strengthened and can be described as the embryonic form of rural civil society. Its far-reaching significance extends far beyond the grassroots elections itself.