Village elections in contemporary ChinaNew Spaces for Generating Regime Legitimacy? Experiences from Lishu County

This article discusses the impact of direct village elections on regime legitimacy in China's local government. Applying a model based on David Easton's political systems theory, it is argued that village elections in Lishu county, Jilin province, have contributed significantly to increased social stability and the quality of local governance, resulting in more regime legitimacy. "Rational trust" on the part of the peasants in their cadres may best explain the observation that the cadres' political supremacy has not been challenged by direct elections.