Understanding the Power Interactions between Villages and the State

Abstract

Chinese villages have been historically regarded as autonomous areas without officials from the state. Since the founding of modern China in 1949, the two forces of state and villages that once co-existed and had no influence on each other have produced ever closer relations or even conflicts. The state power has accelerated the process of infiltration into villages in the last decade. Through the observation and research of sand mining in Beicun village, we find that the villagers do not simply resist or obey the state power, but gradually seek the balance between the traditional ritual order and the modern political system. Moreover, with the entry of state power into the village, power dissimilation, such as political favouritism and politicisation of local magnates, are affecting village governance. The key point of reconstructing modern rural political ecology lies in reserving sufficient room for the development of rural conventions under the national political system and in finding balance in the power interactions the state and villages.