Interaction and Integration: Dynamics and Boundaries of China’s Development of Democracy at the Grassroots Level

The central government, local governments and social forces constitute the three basic forces which promoting the development of democracy at the grassroots level in contemporary China. The greatest concerns of those three major agents are namely legitimacy, performance and interest. In the course of democratic development, the three agents interact with each other for their greatest concern. The interactions between the agents shaped the basic form of democratic development process and the state of the separation and integration of the legitimacy, the performance and the interests determines the outcome of a particular democratic practice. The interactions between the three agents are not arbitrary, but on the basis of the " power structure” and " context structure”. Structure, especially the text structure is the basis of the activists, and the constraints of the actors and behavior boundaries. If the legitimacy, performance and interests are highly integrated, the democratic practice is likely to be institutionalized. If the legitimacy, performance and interests are highly separated, the democratic practice will be interrupted.