It is therefore safe to assume that election management is a problem that is widespread throughout Chinese villages. The Chinese people accept corruption as a natural part of elections proving it is a common issue. In 2013, more than 500 lawmakers in the city of Hengyang were caught in a vote buying scandal. The Communist Party of China issued a plan to fight corruption. The Chinese government called the corruption problem, “critical and complicated” (Avery, 2013). The Chinese government does not often admit to problems within the country. Their willingness to call the problem critical speaks to how significant it is. In response to the new government plan a citizen said, ““Frankly if the government was seriously trying to crack down on all
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It viable they view it as a natural part of the election process. Vote buying can be easily rationalized: Lawmakers are paid a salary to vote and paid more money to vote a certain way. Therefore, it makes sense that a candidate would pay for a village citizen to vote for them. Election Management can be just as easily rationalized: The Chinese government operates from the top down. So, it makes sense that the leaders of a village more of a say in elections than the average citizen. When talking about elections in his town, the Vice Secretary of Rose Town Hunan Province said, “Candidates in our town never carry on a campaign, so we don’t have a problem with buying votes” (Takeuchi, 2013, pg 75). The Vice Secretary’s quote proves that corruption is so common within elections that it is linked with campaigning which is usually an essential part of elections Corruption is seen as natural; therefore there is little reason to fight against …show more content…
They are also almost strictly male. There are only two to three percent of village leaders that are women (Levy, 2010). The low percentage of village leaders that are women is likely a result from a combination of women not running and women failing to get votes. The reason behind both can probably be linked to attitudes common in the rural China that view women as less competent than men and should stay out of public arenas (Wang, 2010, pg 6). So, the vast majority of candidates running for office in Chinese villages are wealthy and male. If the majority of the population in rural China is of average to poor wealth and roughly half the population is female (World Bank, 2010), than the candidates running for office in Chinese Villages are coming from a small minority of
It viable they view it as a natural part of the election process. Vote buying can be easily rationalized: Lawmakers are paid a salary to vote and paid more money to vote a certain way. Therefore, it makes sense that a candidate would pay for a village citizen to vote for them. Election Management can be just as easily rationalized: The Chinese government operates from the top down. So, it makes sense that the leaders of a village more of a say in elections than the average citizen. When talking about elections in his town, the Vice Secretary of Rose Town Hunan Province said, “Candidates in our town never carry on a campaign, so we don’t have a problem with buying votes” (Takeuchi, 2013, pg 75). The Vice Secretary’s quote proves that corruption is so common within elections that it is linked with campaigning which is usually an essential part of elections Corruption is seen as natural; therefore there is little reason to fight against …show more content…
They are also almost strictly male. There are only two to three percent of village leaders that are women (Levy, 2010). The low percentage of village leaders that are women is likely a result from a combination of women not running and women failing to get votes. The reason behind both can probably be linked to attitudes common in the rural China that view women as less competent than men and should stay out of public arenas (Wang, 2010, pg 6). So, the vast majority of candidates running for office in Chinese villages are wealthy and male. If the majority of the population in rural China is of average to poor wealth and roughly half the population is female (World Bank, 2010), than the candidates running for office in Chinese Villages are coming from a small minority of