Rethinking local governance in modern China in light of migratory patterns.

• Author: Brown, Tristan G.

A Review of Varieties of Governance in China: Migration and Institutional Change in Chinese Villages

By Jie Lu

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 298 pages.

Jie Lu's new book is a landmark work of political science that lucidly draws on the diverse fields of history, anthropology, and migration studies in elucidating divergent modalities of local village governance in China. Drawing on an impressive number of statistical analyses, rich case studies, and his own fieldwork in rural China, Lu strongly makes the case that the effectiveness of local governing institutions in rural China is dependent on the social environment, community networks, and rates of out-migration. Through exploring local governance in Chinese villages, Lu sheds important insight into grassroots democracy, lineage solidary groups, rural banking, disaster relief, and conflict resolution, which enables this book to appeal to broad scholarly audiences.

At the heart of Lu's argument are three villages that stand as case studies and frame much of his qualitative evidence: Qianzhouzhai Village of Shandong Province, Songzhuang Village of Henan Province, and Su Village, also of Henan Province. For Lu, Qianzhouzhai is representative of one type of rural Chinese village, which has preserved a high level of tight-knit communal structures and has seen relatively low rates of out-migration. Strong social pressures dictate much of everyday life and mundane behavior here, such as a custom of only using umbrellas on rainy days. (1) Elections are held in Qianzhouzhai Village, though candidates are typically nominated directly by the township government, and village cadres sport meager salaries. Nonetheless, roads get paved and loans are provided, though largely through kinship structures and charity from within the local village.

Songzhuang Village, the second case study, has a higher rate of out-migration, with 10 to 15 percent of its total population working outside of Henan Province. (2) Though the houses of Songzhuang are clustered together like those in Qianzhouzhai, the streets are less lively and mainly populated with elders, whose children have left for work elsewhere. Competitive, democratic elections matter here: Voter turnout nears 100 percent of the local population, and elected cadres help villagers solve all different types of problems and maintain public infrastructure.

Su Village, Lu's third case study, is located in the northeastern part of Henan province, where it...