AP Photo

A year ago this past weekend, residents of a small village in southern China took on the Communist Party -- and won. Driving out the town's local government, protesters in Wukan charged that party leaders had illegally sold their farmland without compensating them. The crisis dragged on for months, resulting in the death of one person in custody and the arrest of several more. Police forces besieged the town for 11 days last December before the provincial government finally relented, promised punitive action against corrupt local officials, and, in a first, allowed village residents to hold elections by secret ballot the following year.

The village's yearlong experiment in self-governance looked promising at the start. The elections went off without a...