Neighborhood democracy was introduced into urban China in the early 1990s as a way to manage the social conflicts associated with the housing reform. Based on a case study of Dragon Villas, Beijing, this paper explores the causes, processes, and consequences of neighborhood democracy at the microlevel from a longitudinal perspective. Three insights are particularly noteworthy. First, the decrease in rental revenue and occupancy rate and the arrival of Chinese owner-occupiers contributed to the emergence of neighborhood democracy in Dragon Villas. Second, the establishment of a homeowner association, far from ending in the conclusion of neighborhood democratization, was only a first step. Furthermore, conflicts between the developer and the homeowners, and among homeowners, played a crucial role in lengthening the process of neighborhood democratization. Third, democratic self-governance resulted in improved governance, a more diverse built form that articulates individuation through consumption, and changes that reflect the importance of privacy and exclusivity. 1. Introduction The rise of homeowner associations (HOAs) and neighborhood democracy in Chinese cities has been acknowledged as one of the most remarkable features of China’s urban housing reform in the last two decades [1]. Before the reform, housing provisions and management in Chinese cities were predominantly provided by work units and local governments as welfare benefits [2]. However, the combination of insufficient state investments and very low housing rents meant that many cities suffered from housing shortages and a lack of basic repairs and maintenance to existing housing stock [3, 4]. China’s housing reform in the 1990s aimed to address this problem through wholesale privatization and commodification [5, 6]. Since then, the homeownership rate has skyrocketed from 10% in the early 1980s [7] to 30% in 1995 to more than 70% in 2000 [8], and gated communities have dominated the landscape of Chinese cities [9], bringing significant changes to urban governance in the process [10]. The central government officially introduced HOAs in 1994 when the Ministry of Construction (MOC) promulgated “Methods for the Management of Newly Built Urban Residential Neighborhoods,” although unauthorized HOAs were established in Shenzhen as early as 1991. The key consideration was that the traditional, top-down neighborhood governance systems (e.g., residents’ committees) lost their legitimacy for governance because they no longer provided housing services [1]. In a survey of homeowners in Beijing, Shanghai,
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