Effects of Community Cooperatives on Village-level Democratic Participation of Farmers: Evidence of Farmers of Kiwifruit Planting Cooperatives in Guizhou Province

Community cooperatives have the attribute of "village community integration". Whether the non-economic function of community cooperatives can be brought into play depends on the active participation of farmers. Based on the survey data of farmers in Guizhou Province, this study used multiple Probit and instrumental variable methods to analyze the relationship between community-type cooperatives and farmers' village-level democratic participation. The findings are as follows: First, the participation in community cooperatives has a significant positive impact on rural democratic participation. After the robustness test, the conclusion is still significant. Second, there is heterogeneity in the democratic promotion effect of community-based cooperatives. From the village level, farmers who are far away from the market participate more actively than those who are near the market. From the perspective of farmers' age group, the younger farmers participated more actively in village democracy than the older. Third, community-based cooperatives affect village-level democratic participation by improving the economic dependence on agricultural resources and political trust of participating farmers. Therefore, in order to promote the transformation of community cooperatives from institutional advantage to governance efficiency, the democracy-enhancing role of cooperatives should be valued. In the meantime, the degree of economic dependence on agricultural resources and political trust of participating farmers could be increased to enhance their democratic participation, and promote the transformation of community cooperatives from institutional advantages to governance efficiency.