In view of the current social situation, it is important to pay attention to the cause of conflicts, and get to know how unstable factors have accumulated, and how unstable forces have grown.

The basic driving force for the development of China’s grassroots democracy can boil down to two respects: socio-economic growth, and governments’ leadership and direct guidance.

One of the major characteristics relating to grassroots democracy is direct election and direct participation.

In current studies on farmers, “politics” seems to be overlooked. On the one hand, among discussions of “farmers”, politics is often not regarded as a research perspective.

China’s farmers are walking out of the identity bias and constraints imposed on them by the old system. Chinese farmers in the traditional sense (hereinafter referred to as traditional farmers) are experiencing such a period of “new fate enveloped in the old system”.

The enforcement of village-level organization system constitutes the key factor while public management of villages is the primary level of rural governance.

Since reform and opening-up, the Chinese government has shifted the focus of work onto economic development and created the "Chinese Miracle" with a continued and high-speed growth.

With a review of the history of farmers' petition through letters and visits, it could be found that China's rural conflicts have taken on some new features after China's entry into the 21st century.