[雙語翻譯]鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)選舉外文翻譯（英文）

1、Village and Township Elections in ChinaElements of Democratic GovernanceJonathan TommIntroductionVillage and township elections in China have been the focus of much excitement among Western scholars. To many, such electi

2、ons hold out the promise of genuine democracy taking hold in China, starting at the village level and (as both Western and Chinese democrats hope) one day moving up even to the national level. Others are more skeptical,

3、suggesting that such elections only entrench the leadership of the Communist Party. This essay will argue that elections in China are a movement toward greater democracy in local governance. The methodology used will be

4、a survey of the Western literature on village and township elections in China, and engagement with the arguments put forward by scholars in this area. There has been an interesting debate around the meaning of vil- lage

5、 elections ever since their introduction in 1988. Kelliher, Pastor and Tan, O’Brien and Li, and Manion have all presented analyses of village elections, including observations of actual electoral practice, and more85Jona

6、than Tomm brings a broad and eclectic academic background to his study of poli- tics, including undergraduate studies in philosophy and theology. After receiving his BA from the University of Victoria in 2003, Jonathan t

7、raveled to Lesotho, Southern Africa, to work for a small NGO. There he worked on various 'democracy building' projects aimed at strengthening civil society, primarily through educating high school students about

8、democratic governance and citizenship. He now looks forward to beginning his MA in political science in September 2006. His research interests centre on theories of democracy, and in particular, on democratic deliberatio

9、n under conditions of cultural pluralism.not be allowed. In July 2001, the Central Committee declared the direct election of township heads unconstitutional.9However, other townships and counties have continued to experi

10、ment with innovations that have made the cadre selection process more open and accountable, within the confines of the current law. Conventionally, township heads are elected by the township peo- ple’s congress, who is i

11、n turn elected by the villagers. In practice, though, the township head is chosen by the Party committee at the county or municipality level, and given to the township congress for ratification. Even so, it is in the int

12、erest of the county authorities to choose a candidate who will be popular.10 Saich and Yang describe a number of innovations to this procedure that have attempted to broad- en participation in the selection process, with

13、out resorting to a direct election.11 In one notable method called “open recommendation and selection,” candidates for township head complete public written and oral exams. They are then voted on by a representative grou

14、p of citi- zens larger than the township people’s congress (though still not the populace as a whole). This open process of evaluation—and especially the “oral exams,” which resemble campaign speeches—significantly incre

15、ases citizen participation in cadre selection, compared with the secrecy of the usual selection process. Furthermore, this method has even been extended in some cases to selection of the township Party secretary, which r

16、epresents a further opening of the Party’s internal cadre promotion system.12A final set of changes taking place involves the selection of deputies to the people’s congresses. The law requires direct elections of people’

17、s congresses up to the township and district level, but these elections have remained firmly in the control of the Party though the Party’s monopoly of the nomination process. However, in recent years there has been an i

18、ncrease in independent or self-nominated candi- dates that have succeeded in being placed on the ballots.13 Significantly, this has happened not only in rural areas, but also in the influential cities of Shenzhen and Bei

19、jing in 2003. Voices of cautionTo many observers, all of these electoral practices—the established sys- tem of village elections, the tentative movements toward direct election of township heads, various attempts to make

20、 the cadre placement process more representative, and the opening of party congress elec- tions to independent candidates—suggest a movement toward democ- racy in China. However, there is good reason to be wary of leapin