Calamity and Reform in China: State, Rural Society, and Institutional Change Since the Great Leap Famine

370 Pages·1996·7.727 MB·English

by  Dali L. Yang

Calamity and Reform in China

Calamity and Reform in China
•
• • • •
State, Rural Society, and Institutional
Change Since the Great Leap Famine
•
• • • •
Dali L. Yang
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 1996 by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University
Printed in the United States of America
CIP data are at the end of the book.
To the memory of
L., Y. H. K., and C. Y. Z.
and
the millions of Chinese who died in the Great Leap Famine
The major advances in civilization are
processes which all but wreck the societies
in which they occur.
-Alfred North Whitehead,
Symbolism
•
• • • •
Contents
A Note on Translation, Transliteration, Names, and Measures xx1
Map of the People's Republic of China xxii
Introduction • The Great Leap Famine, the Rise of Reform, and
the Cognitive Basis of Institutional Change 1
The Political Significance of Decollectivization, 2. The Rise
of China's Reforms: Two Conventional Explanations, 3. An
Alternative Explanation: The Great Leap Famine and the Rise
of Reform, 6. Reform, the Rural Economy, and Peasants:
Defining the Terms, 7. The Analytical Framework: Cognitive
Biases and Institutional Change, 9. Research Strategy, 15.
Part I • Context
1. The Path to Disaster 21
From Land Reform to Collectivization, 21. Collectivization
and Agricultural Performance, 23. The Great Leap Forward
and Famine, 33. The Great Leap Famine and the Social Basis
for Change, 39. Conclusion, 40.
xiv • Contents
2. The Political Economy of the Great Leap Famine 42
The First Retreat: Before the Lushan Conference, 43. The
Lushan Conference and the Suppression of Household
Contracting, 51. Explaining the Great Leap Famine, 54.
Conclusion, 66.
Part II • Catastrophe and Reform
3. The Great Leap Famine and Rural Liberalization 71
The Second Retreat by the Chinese Leadership, 73. The
Struggle from Below and the Spread of Household
Responsibility, 81. The Debate over Household Contracting,
84. The Suppression of Household Contracting, 93.
Conclusion, 96.
4. The Cultural Revolution Interlude 98
The Famine, Cognitive Change, and Rural Policy During the
Cultural Revolution, 99. Peasant Initiatives amid Agrarian
Radicalism, 115. Conclusion, 119.
5. Structural Incentives for Rural Reform 121
Elite Cleavages and the Expansion of Political Space, 122.
Structural Incentives for Rural Institutional Change, 131.
Conclusion, 142.
6. The Political Struggle over Reform 144
The Third Plenum, the New Sixty Articles, and the Limits of
Policy Change, 145. The Trailblazers: Carrying Out Third
Plenum-Style Practices Before the Plenum, 149. The
Reemergence of Output Contracting, 153. 1979: A Window of
Opportunity for the Household Responsibility System,
160. Reaching a Verdict: 1980-81, 164. Spreading the
Household Responsibility System, 172. Conclusion, 176.
Part III • State and Rural Society Under Reform
7. Reform Euphoria, Policy Myopia, and Rising Rural Discontent 183
Expansion of the Township Bureaucracy, 186. Bureaucratic
Expansion and the Peasant, 188. Coping with Change: Peasant
Behavior in a Time of Stress, 192. Implications of Cadre-
Peasant Tensions, 197. The Party-State's Responses, 201.
State-Peasant Relations After Tiananmen, 203. Conclusion, 210.
Contents • xv
8. Rural Industrialization, Political Empowerment,
and State Policy 213
The Changed Role of Rural Enterprises in the Chinese Economy,
214. Shifts in Rural Enterprise Policy, 1988-90, 215. The
Rural Enterprise Sector Under the Austerity Program, 220.
Explaining Policy Shift: The Imposition of the Austerity
Program, 224. Interests, Perceptions, and Policy Change, 226.
Conclusion, 234.
Conclusions and Reflections 237
Beliefs, Cognitive Biases, and the Path of Institutions,
238. Peasants, the State, and the Politics of Institutional
Change, 242. Path Dependence, Path Rupture, and Historical
Change, 249. Final Reflections, 252.
Appendix: Main Sources of Data for Analyses of the Great Leap Famine 257
Abbreviations 259
Notes 261
Bibliography 311
Index 345