Monday, November 12, 2012

China explores expansion of grassroots democracy


China:

Wu Liutun, secretary of the Duqiao Village Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), told her that his signature did not count as it had before.
Wu asked Wang to get permission for the clinic from eight village deputies from the No 7 Group, one of the seven subsidiary units of Duqiao village.
Wang, a retired professor of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Henan University, based in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, planned to set up a clinic where the No 7 Group is based, also her home village in the town of Baisha, Zhongmou county, and spend the rest of her life there.
But to achieve this, she would need to obtain approval from at least two-thirds of the village deputies.
"If she comes back, she will enjoy the same welfare as the other villagers, such as regular distribution of flour and cooking oil," said Wang Zhanjun, head of the No 7 Group. "Will the villagers agree, as their welfare is being shared?"
To avoid concentrating power in the hands of just a few people, Baisha introduced a villager representative system, or Villager Congress, in 2006. Unlike the past, when village heads decided everything, all major issues in the village are now decided by the representatives.
According to Chinese law, a village head is elected by all the villagers, but in most cases, a supervision system is not in place. Many village chiefs have continued to find ways to impose autocratic rule, having taken office via bribery or threats, said analysts.
Wukan Village, located in South China's booming Guangdong province, grabbed international headlines last year when the residents of the small village staged three waves of large-scale rallies over a period of four months to protest what they alleged were illegal land grabs, corruption and violations of financing and election rules among officials.
As the urbanization process has accelerated in recent years, much of Baisha's land has become home to factories. The distribution of the compensation funds for the occupied lands is largely controlled by the village heads.   more

America US of A

     Don't get me wrong but this is also a fact when small business goes before town hall and pleads for permission to create jobs.  Our town also requires a percentage of property to be reserved for "greenery."  Before you start to swoon, we have moved on. Now the elected officials "suggest" what they would like to see you install as greenery,  business or land owner need not have a say or thought of to what they might want to plant anymore. And of course once all this greenery is planted and a permit to do business is obtained, elected officials will tell you that a water ban is in order and all your "greenery" dies anyway. Make sense? This is just a small example of government control of one's property and this is in America folks. Government is way too big (FEMA) and is incapable of running a business or organization, let alone yours and mine!

And yes, it is a holiday for some, but I am at my desk in the office with the rest of the family.

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