about 80 % of the total number, for a very long time. Professor Ren from HeXi College investigated the farmers in the undeveloped western area in China. It turns out that over 72.4 % villagers said they never take part in any election to choose the representative, in the rest of which many choose the one who has been told to vote for. Then, who do the local government think should be on the list of the candidates? Take a closer look at the representative;
it is conspicuous that many of them are the so-called elites such as rich businessmen, the leaders of the government or the celebrities from different region, who know little
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about the region where they are from and the public opinion of the local people. T h e representatives from different regions are the major channels, or sometimes the only channel to enable the ordinary people to take part in the political activities and make their own contribution to politics. Despite of the low degree of participation of Chinese people in politics, we must acknowledge the merits of the government in the micro scope,
like improving the living condition of people, streamlining the social welfare system, etc. In terms of the benefits brought up by the mechanism,
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it seems a little bit contradictory to the negative c o m m e n t s from the public. But there are potentially two reasons to illustrate it. Firstly, the unique Chinese culture affects the Chinese people significantly. Under almost two thousand years’ imperial reign, people
tend to believe and rely on the government. In addition to the culture perspective, Chinese are more of result-oriented people while pay less attention
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to the principle level. Thus, as long as we can live a better life under the guide of the government, it is tolerable than we have a less democratic political discourse comparing the other countries. Secondly, the overwhelming amount of people makes it even harder to make relatively democratic and unanimous decisions. The advantages of this more centralized mechanism includes the quicker decisions on state affairs especially those which are closely related to people’ s daily life and the high enforcement of the policies due to the credibility of the government among people. However, it is not the optimal mode for the long run after all. As the |
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citizens are more independent and intelligent, the advantages would be declined. The indifference and resentment of people to the political system will be intensified if the government does not change according to the new demands of the more critical citizens. It is no wonder that the video is hit by over 700,000 people in three day. Because, the answers echoed the majority opinions, and they are ironic to the central idea promoted by the two sessions that the great meetings enable all the Chinese people to have a say in politics. People laugh and applaud for the video and it will remain to be popular for a long while. For Chinese government, it a wake-up call. |