Table of Contents

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The authoritarian Chinese regimes governing Taiwan, Mainland China, and Hong Kong allowed limited electoral competition during the last half century. In Taiwan that process evolved over more than three decades before leading to the formation of an opposition party under martial law in late September 1986 and the blossoming of a full democracy in March 2000 when that opposition partly replaced the ruling party. In Mainland China and Hong Kong, limited electoral competition has only evolved over the last fifteen years or so.

This volume examines why and how limited electoral competition developed in Greater China. The editors use a typology and different concepts to analyze how the political center in these three Chinese societies historically interacted with society and how different regime change took place. Their analysis attributes Taiwan's robust electoral comptertition under martial law to political breakthroughs in the political, ideological, economic, and organizational marketplaces.

Without similar political breakthroughs in Mainland China and Hong Kong, their limited electoral processes are not likely to lead to the election of one or more opposition parties in Mainland China and the direct election of a Hong Kong governor and parliament. These two authoritarian regimes have adopted different institutions, or rules, to limit electoral competition. Moreover, different changes have been taking place in their political, ideological, economic, and organizational marketplaces than occurred in Taiwan. Therefore, whether these two Chinese societies can mimic the Taiwan democratization path remains problematic. Only the passage of time will reveal whether their limited electoral processes can transform into full democracy.

About the authors:

Larry Diamond is senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, as well as co-director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Ramon H. Myers is curator-scholar of the East Asian Collection and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Elections and Democracy
in Greater China
Larry Diamond and Ramon H. Myers
1

How Elections Promoted Democracy in Taiwan under Martial Law
Linda Chao and Ramon H. Myers
23

Elections, Political Change and Basic Law Government: The Hong Kong System in Search of a Political Form
Suzanne Pepper
46

Democracy Deformed :Hong Kong's 1998 Legislative Elections - And Beyond
Richard Baum
75

Accommodating "Democracy" in a One-Party State: Introducing Village Elections in China
Kevin J. O'Brien and Liangjiang Li
101

The Meaning of China's Village Elections
Robert A. Pastor and Quingshan Tan
126

Elections and Power: The Locus of Decision-Making in Chinese Villages
Jean C. Oi and Scott Rozelle
149

Cultural Values and Democracy in the People's Republic of China
Tianjian Shi
176

Index
197