Abstract:

As a large，new and developing industrial workers group in China，migrant workers' political participation has an
important effect on whether socialist democratic political construction will go on smoothly，and also concerns the harmony and stability of both urban and rural areas. However，migrant workers' political participation is marginalized at present，and more importantly，noninstitutional political participation behaviors appear frequently，such as petitioning bypass local authorities，violence and vandalism，illegal gathering and suicidal threats，which threaten both social order and the regime governance. According to the theory of path dependence by Douglass C North，an American economist，we can find the root of migrant workers' non- institutional political participation due to being lack of some proper systems，existence of irrational systems and some systems in name only resulted from path dependence. Therefore，we should get rid of path dependent，reform and improve irrational systems，formulate the law and systems that will help to increase migrant workers' institutional political participation，and stick to the present rational systems faithfully.

Key words: migrant workers, non-institutional political participation, system root, path dependence