Conflict Management through Controlled Elections: “Harmonising Interventions” by Party Work Teams in Chinese Village Elections

This study explores a distinct type of electoral intervention, which we call “harmonising intervention,” by the Chinese local state to achieve the goal of securing the joint post of the village Party secretary and Village Committee director. It involves mediating conflicts through electoral interventions and using elections to create harmony. The research finds that through such interventions, the local state simultaneously accomplishes the legitimisation, information collection, elite co-optation, and clout demonstration functions of authoritarian elections. “Harmonising interventions” have obvious power concentration effects and strengthen local state control rather than village self-governance.