The Collectivist Legacy and Agrarian Development in China since 1978

Abstract

This article contributes to the study of the collectivist legacy in Chinese agriculture after 1978 by making five main arguments. First, it demonstrates that the construction of a robust agricultural infrastructure in the collective era enabled the government of the reform era to reduce its infrastructural spending without harming agricultural productivity in the 1980s. Second, village administrations were heavily involved in farm organization in the same period. Third, the collective-era legacy of labor mobilization was relatively strong until the early 2000s. Fourth, the degree of local self-financing remained significant until the abolition of the agricultural tax in 2006. Finally, although the “one project, one discussion” 一事一议 reform of 2008 has failed to raise a significant amount of labor and funds from villagers on a voluntary basis, it nevertheless shows that collective mobilization of labor and financial resources has not been entirely forgotten and continues to inform Chinese agrarian policy to a certain extent.