The process of democratization has made much headway in china, the world’s most populous country with 900 million farmers. In some 1 million rural villages, residents select their favorate leaders to make up the villagers’ committee. This selection breeze which originated a decade ago and has thus swept across the country’s vast rural areas has helped foster and enhanced the consciousness of democracy of the vast number of chinese farmers.

The practice of village committe elections shows the majority of the cadres directly elected by the farmers in accordance with law are upright and capable, have a good style of administration and know economics and management. They are leaders who can help fellow villagers get on the road leading to a comfortable life, reach a morderate level of prosperity and build new socialist villages which are prosperous, democratic and cultured. Studies of the latest round of selection indicate that the newly elected members of the village committes are better educated and younger in age. About 70% have received junior middle school education while a few have received a junior college or university education. Young people around the age of 30 make up 60% of the membership of the newly elected villagers’ commities. The overall quality of the continent of rural grassroot cadres has improved significantly.

A sense of democracy has indeed grown from the most elementary village level election and from the election of the people familiar to the farmer voters. In the course of election, the farmers have received actual democratic training, from the process of registrating as voters, nominiting candidates, pre-electing and casting votes. This process has also fostered their sense of law.

The chinese government holds that it is the most extensive practice of socialist democracy to expand grassroot democracy, ensure the people their right and direct election and allow the citizens to manage their own affairs in accordance with the law and build a happy life. The government requires all urban and grassroot organs of political power and grassroots self-governing organizations to perfect the democratic electoral system, separate administrative management from financial management and let the general public participate in the disccusion of and make decisions about grassroots-public wellfare concerns as well as exercise democratic supervision over cadres.