This article analyses the stages of evolution of local democratisation in rural China from the perspective of innovation, especially grassroots innovation studies. Based on an interpretation of four major cases of villagers’ political innovations over the past three decades in rural China, we argue that: (a) villagers’ collective action triggers political reform in rural China; (b) the interaction between villagers and the government/Party moves the process of rural political innovations forward; and (c) the innovation process model drawn from the field of grassroots innovation studies, consisting of four stages—problem/motivation, trigger, initiative/innovation and diffusion/impact—explains the trajectory of institutional change in rural politics just as it explains the trajectory of grassroots technological and economic institutional innovation.
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