Improving Election Procedures and Practices in China: Some Modest Proposals

15 Pages Posted: 9 Jul 2008

See all articles by Kevin J. O'Brien

Kevin J. O'Brien

University of California, Berkeley - Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science

Date Written: April 23, 2008

Abstract

Based on a trip to observe villagers' committee and people's congress elections in rural Yunnan in December 2002, some suggestions are made concerning how to improve election procedures and practices. These include: encourage candidate nominations by voters to be less ritualistic; rethink the use of quotas and other means to ensure that sufficient numbers of minorities and women are elected; further institutionalize primaries; establish candidate self-registration; regulate proxy voting more carefully; consider the benefits of voters casting ballots individually at their convenience rather than at long meetings; promote greater political equality by adjusting election representation ratios; favor secret balloting over simple anonymous balloting; make vote-counting more transparent and mix up ballots before counting them; and most important of all, abolish the "oppose" (fandui) vote and the requirement that victors in the main election receive 50% of all ballots distributed in favor of a system where the candidate who receives the most votes wins.

Keywords: China, elections, procedures, Yunnan, people's congresses, village committees

JEL Classification: O54, P30

Suggested Citation

O'Brien, Kevin J., Improving Election Procedures and Practices in China: Some Modest Proposals (April 23, 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1157092 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1157092

Kevin J. O'Brien (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley - Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science ( email )

210 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

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