Voting and Nonvoting in China: Voting Behavior in Plebiscitary and Limited- Choice Elections

Abstract

Students of political participation have engaged in intensive study of voting behavior in democratic societies and of nonvoting in communist societies during their totalitarian stage. However, little effort has been made to study voting behavior in communist societies at the authoritarian stage. Using data gathered from China, this paper explores voting behavior during this critical stage of political development. The analyses show that voting behavior in noncompetitive plebiscitary elections is fundamentally different from voting behavior in semicompetitive elections. When provided with limited choice on election day, persons with greater political resources no longer abstain from voting as a form of protest. Survey data show that they vote in such elections to pursue their political interests. The desire to punish corrupt officials and to facilitate democratic transformation plays a crucial role in motivating traditionally politically active people to vote in limited-choice elections.