Giving meaning to elections in Chinese minority areas

Democratization of minority villages in China is not conceptually distingui shable from that of Han villages probably because democratization is concei ved of as a universal type of progress regardless of the country or ethnic origin of the areas under study. This paper reports on a number of intervie ws with local minority scholars and cadres at the township and village leve ls in three minority areas in China and one in Taiwan. The paper will draw a comparison among those ethnic groups. Both China and Taiwan possess a "hu man relational culture" while the latter is institutionally move democratic in politics and move liberal in Economics than the former. The similaritie s among the four minority areas are significant. First of all, electoral co mpetition is not of value in any of these ethnic villages. Integration and unity are the major concerns. Competing on the human relational front is mo re typical than infra-system campaigning. The anxiety over loss of social c ontrol is a built-in element, rather than a constraint, of democracy. The f amily and kinship organizations are by far the most influential factors in election-related discourse. Even though people no longer blindly follow the family position on an issue, the repeated reference to "unity" or "consens us" implies a worldview where the meaning of life begins in the family, the tribe, and the kinship level instead of the individual.. Electoral politic s has not yet changed the fundamental thinking on the priority of the colle ctive over the individual.