Reviewing Studies on Villager Self-government in China: The XiangTu School as an Example

The article draws the outline of the studies of villager self-government system in China, then emphatically analyses a typical example, the XiangTu school, most scholars of which are teaching in the Center of China. The article analyses the change of study direction of the XiangTu school. The author points that the theoretical feature of the school is connecting villagers’ autonomy with governance of villages. However, the author criticizes the school for its flaws on the methodology.