IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v46y2015i2p339-365.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Achievements, Contradictions and Demise of the Rural Collectives in Songzi County, China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhun Xu

Abstract

type="main"> The literature on Chinese rural collectives offers different views on the causes of their demise in the early 1980s. Some argue it was a result of egalitarianism and inefficiency, while others emphasize the coercive nature of the decollectivization campaign. Using Songzi County as a case study, this article reviews both the achievements and the problems of the rural collectives and concludes that they can claim some remarkable achievements. It also finds that work avoidance and inefficiency were caused by stratification rather than egalitarianism. While the demise of rural collectives was mostly due to political pressure from the government, the lack of socialist political process contributed to the peasants’ passiveness in failing to resist this major institutional change.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhun Xu, 2015. "The Achievements, Contradictions and Demise of the Rural Collectives in Songzi County, China," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(2), pages 339-365, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:46:y:2015:i:2:p:339-365
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/dech.12155
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lin, Justin Yifu, 1988. "The Household Responsibility System in China's Agricultural Reform: A Theoretical and Empirical Study," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(3), pages 199-224, Supplemen.
    2. Lin, Justin Yifu, 1992. "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 34-51, March.
    3. Griffin, Keith & Saith, Ashwani, 1982. "The Pattern of Income Inequality in Rural China," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(1), pages 172-206, March.
    4. repec:bla:econom:v:55:y:1988:i:218:p:235-47 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kung, James Kaising, 1994. "Egalitarianism, subsistence provision, and work incentives in China's agricultural collectives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 175-187, February.
    6. Riskin, Carl, 1998. "Seven questions about the Chinese famine of 1959-1961," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 111-124.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jia, Lili, 2012. "Land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 66, number 66.
    2. Liu, Shouying & Carter, Michael R. & Yao, Yang, 1998. "Dimensions and diversity of property rights in rural China: Dilemmas on the road to further reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(10), pages 1789-1806, October.
    3. Thomas Vendryes, 2014. "Peasants Against Private Property Rights: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 971-995, December.
    4. Zhang, Yumei & Diao, Xinshen, 2020. "The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change – The case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Loren Brandt & Debin Ma & Thomas G. Rawski, 2014. "From Divergence to Convergence: Reevaluating the History behind China's Economic Boom," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 45-123, March.
    6. Besley, Timothy & Ghatak, Maitreesh, 2010. "Property Rights and Economic Development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4525-4595, Elsevier.
    7. You, Heyuan & Zhang, Jinrong & Song, Yan, 2022. "Assessing conflict of farmland institutions using credibility theory: Implications for socially acceptable land use," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    8. Dollar, David, 2007. "Asian century or multi-polar century ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4174, The World Bank.
    9. Bai, Ying & Kung, James Kai-sing, 2014. "The shaping of an institutional choice: Weather shocks, the Great Leap Famine, and agricultural decollectivization in China," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-26.
    10. Jin, Zhangfeng & Pan, Shiyuan, 2020. "Incentive Pay and Firm Productivity: Evidence from China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 479, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Lu, Yi & Luan, Mengna & Sng, Tuan-Hwee, 2020. "Did the communists contribute to China’s rural growth?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Yin, Runsheng & Xu, Jintao, 2002. "A Welfare Measurement of China's Rural Forestry Reform During the 1980s," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1755-1767, October.
    13. Wenjing Han & Zhengfeng Zhang & Xiaoling Zhang & Li He, 2021. "Farmland Rental Participation, Agricultural Productivity, and Household Income: Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, August.
    14. Akramov, Kamiljon T. & Omuraliev, Nurbek, 2009. "Institutional change, rural services, and agricultural performance in Kyrgyzstan:," IFPRI discussion papers 904, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Xu, Huayu, 2021. "The long-term health and economic consequences of improved property rights," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    16. Shengmin Sun & Qiang Chen, 2014. "Measuring the Effects of Decollectivization on China's Agricultural Growth: A Panel GMM Approach, 1970-1987," SDU Working Papers 2014-05, School of Economics, Shandong University.
    17. Fan, Shenggen, 1997. "How fast have China's agricultural production and productivity really been growing?: new measurement and evidence," EPTD discussion papers 30, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. Gibson, John, 2020. "Aggregate and distributional impacts of China’s household responsibility system," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(1), January.
    19. Li, Ang & Wu, Jianguo & Zhang, Xueyao & Xue, Jianguo & Liu, Zhifeng & Han, Xingguo & Huang, Jianhui, 2018. "China’s new rural “separating three property rights” land reform results in grassland degradation: Evidence from Inner Mongolia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 170-182.
    20. Fan, Shenggan & Pardey, Philip G., 1997. "Research, productivity, and output growth in Chinese agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 115-137, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:46:y:2015:i:2:p:339-365. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.