The Investigation Report of Farmers’Political Cognition and Ability

曾子成

（浙江大學馬克思主義學院，浙江 杭州310028）

1 Core Concepts

In the first place,this report needs to define two core concepts.

1.1 Political cognition

As to the connotation of political cognition,the academic circles had been reached views on that it meant the process of managing the political information about political system,institution and other rules.To be clear,it’s always in a process of changing from perceptual cognition to the rational cognition.Many scholars have put forward suggestions on the measurement of farmers’political cognition,and American famous political scientist Almond had design of four indexes.

1.2 Political ability

It refers to the political behavior of citizens by some ways to participate in national political life and expound their personal political opinions and suggestions.But for the specific division of political ability,there are many different viewpoints in domestic scholars.For example,some scholars divided it into the maintenance political ability and the push political ability.And many scholars think that political participation especially voting is the most direct reflection of farmers’political ability.

2 Research Design

2.1 Survey questionnair e

The design of the research questionnaire includes 3 aspects.Firstly,the research group investigated the farmers’basic information.Such as farmers’sex,age,culture degree,occupation,political affiliation,marital status and family income,this part information were mainly used for analysis of sample characteristics.Secondly,the group investigated farmers’political cognition to describe the overall situation,this part information including 4 Almond indexes.Thirdly,the group investigated farmers’subjective political ability and objective political ability.In order to supplement evidence for the questionnaire investigation results,the group also had used the methods of literature review,case interviews and other means.

2.2 Survey area

The subject of research had carried out in Yichun City,Jiangxi Province last year.This area has convenient transportation,and the implementation of the villager autonomy system has achieved a certain effect.According to the higher authorities,these rural areas have done for the villagers’democratic elections and management.Group members filled out the questionnaires in line with farmers’answers,so the research results have certain representativeness.

2.3 Theoretical basi s

Almond had divided farmers’political ability into subjective ability and objective ability.The subjective ability is the perception of influencing government’s decision-making and implementation process,and the objective ability is the actual behavior of political participation.On the other hand,Almond put political ability into citizens’,lieges’and villages’.He also thought that an ability to participate in political activities were more likely to be a positive villager.

3 Investigation results

The group had given out 200 questionnaires,and retrieved 198 copies,the efficiency is 97%.The group used VFP6.0 and SPSS17.0 statistical software to count the data.

3.1 The government authority cognitive

This measurement is the most important reference index.The statistical data showed that farmers’political identity to the governments was generally higher,the number of “very identification” and“comparative identification”accounted for 90.3%.Part of the surveyed farmers said that the new central government had made a lot of political reforms,which effectively improved the current political landscape.But for the primary level of government,about 70%farmers thought that they still had an important impact on farmers’political rights.Farmers’political identity had big distinguishes in the central government and the local government.This results were great different with Almond’s data.

3.2 The political affairs contact

The measurement of this index focused o n the farmers’emotion of the villager autonomy political system.A total of 55.2%farmers showed identity to the system,we could see that our country’s rural political development had made certain achievements,but there were still up to 40.2%farmers said that they had known nothing about it.The group also had counted the political affairs,anti-corruption,personnel arrangement and cross-straits relations were the key areas.

3.3 The political information awareness

Village chiefs are the countryside public figure,using this index to measure the farmers’political cognition will be more objective and reasonable.According to the survey data,about 85.1%farmers know the village directors’names,which meant that farmers were clear aware of the basic political information.What’s serious,there were still a considerable proportion of farmers lack of initiative on the political information.

3.4 The political problem judgment

Farmers will give judgments in government decision base on their political quality and knowledge,this index reflects the political cognitive level of farmers.About 89.2%investigation objects expressed satisfaction with the work of the government.Farmers had an independent ability of political judgment.

4 Conclusion

Democratic election isthemost effectiveformof political participation.Most farmersweresupposed tobetovote,but theactual votingratewasvery low.Affected by the China traditional culture,the passive participation was still occupied the majority.On the alienation of public life made the social function of farmer autonomy systemwas very difficult to bring into play.In a word,there is a long way to improve farmers’political cognition and ability.

［1］Michael E.Morrell.Deliberation,Democratic Decision-Making and Internal Political Efficacy[J].Political Behavior，2005(1).

［2］Scott H.Ainsworth.Modeling Political Efficacy and Interest Group Membership[J].Political Behavior，2000(2).