Table Of ContentINSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IN THE CHINESE COUNTRYSIDE
INSTITUTIONAL
REFORM
AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
IN THE CHINESE
COUNTRYSIDE
Edited by
Keith Griffin
Magdalen College, Oxford
M
MACMILLAN
© Keith Griffin 1984
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission
First published 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Institutional reform and economic development in
the Chinese countryside.
1. China-Economic conditions-1949-
2. China-Rural conditions
I. Griffin, Keith
330.951'05 HC247.9
ISBN 978-0-333-37227-2 ISBN 978-1-349-16662-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-16662-6
Contents
Preface vii
Units of Measurement ix
Notes on the Contributors x
l Introduction Keith Griffin l
Outline of the book 9
The incidence of poverty and malnutrition 16
2 Institutional Change and Income Distribution
Keith Griffin and Kimberley Griffin 20
The new reforms and the responsibility system 26
Two radical experiments 31
The growth of output 37
The distribution of collective income 39
Changes over time in the degree of equality 48
The household economy 51
Summary 59
3 The Responsibility System and Institutional Change
Azizur Rahman Khan 76
Changes in the post-Mao period 76
The responsibility system 84
Separation of economic and political power 99
An interim evaluation of the responsibility system 105
Some lessons of the Chinese experience 120
4 Employment and Incomes in Rural China: The Impact of
Recent Organisational Changes Eddy Lee 132
Employment and labour allocation until 1978 133
Arguments for reform 139
The transition to the new system 143
The new system of work organisation and payments 155
vi Contents
Potential effects on employment and income distribution 165
Conclusion 171
5 China's New Population Policies Ashwani Saith 176
Why control population growth? 180
Lagged impact of demographic events 187
Causes of high population growth 188
New rural reforms, new demographic pressures 191
The response of the state: SCFP 196
SCFP: some implications and consequences 199
Conclusion 207
6 Commune- and Brigade-run Enterprises in Rural China:
An Overview Keith Griffin and Kimberley Griffin 210
Size and economic characteristics of the sector 210
Industrial enterprises at commune and brigade level 214
Recent policy changes 216
7 Commune- and Brigade-run Industries in Rural China:
Some Recent Observations J. L. Enos 223
Coverage 223
Trends in rural industrialisation 225
Likely future issues 246
Conclusion 251
8 The New Development Strategy and Rural Reforms in
Post-Mao China Ajit Kumar Ghose 253
Development strategies: old and new 255
State policy towards the rural sector 270
The commune system in transition 274
Concluding observations 292
9 Epilogue: Rural China in 1983 Keith Griffin 303
Production and incomes 303
Income distribution 306
Relations of production 309
Capital accumulation 316
Index 331
Preface
Most of the material used in preparing this book was obtained by the
seven of us during a three-week field trip in rural China in July and
August 1982. Financial assistance was provided by the British
Academy /Social Science Research Council, the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, the ILO's Asian Regional Team for Employment
Promotion (ARTEP), Oxford's Webb Medley Fund and the Institute of
Social Studies in The Hague. We are most grateful for this assistance.
Five of us made a return visit to China in September 1983 when we
presented our findings to our colleagues at the Institute of Agricultural
Economics in Beijing and gave them an opportunity to comment on our
facts, methods of analysis and conclusions. During the course of a three
day seminar there was a lively exchange of views which it is safe to
predict will lead some of us to reassess our position on some points in
future writings. The essays published here, however, were not revised
after the seminar because we thought it best to present the picture as we
saw it in the summer of 1982 without much benefit of hindsight. Instead
it was decided to write an Epilogue which would contain the highlights
of the 1983 trip.
The return visit to China, including additional field work in Shaanxi
and the Chongqing municipality, was financed in large part by a grant
from ARTEP. Further help was provided by the Institute of Social
Studies in The Hague. Again, we are most grateful for this generous
assistance.
Parts of Chapter 2 were published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics
and Statistics and in China Quarterly. An earlier version of Chapters 3
and 4 was published by ARTEP as Agrarian Policies and Institutions in
China after Mao.
We are deeply grateful to Mr Wang Geng Jin, our host at the Institute
of Agricultural Economics, and to Mr Ni Xinyi, also of the Institute,
who accompanied us on the field trip and did much to facilitate our
research. Our interpreter was Mr Ruan Kehung, without whose
constant help nothing would have been possible. We are indebted, too,
vii
viii Preface
to the regional offices of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in
Sichuan and Yunnan, to numerous ministries and government agencies
in Beijing and perhaps above all to the leaders and ordinary members of
the communes we visited.
The final typescript was prepared for publication by Mrs Iris Patrick.
Her skill, patience and good humour are much appreciated.
Magdalen College KEITH GRIFFIN
Oxford
Units of Measurement
1 mu (or mou) 0.1647 acre 1-=. 1/6 acre
0.0667 hectare
1jin O.Skg
1 yuan 10 jiao = 100 fen
1 US$ 1.71 yuan in 1981
ix
Notes on the Contributors
John Enos, Fellow and Tutor in Economics, Magdalen College, Oxford;
co-author (with Keith Griffin) of Planning Development (1970) and of
numerous articles in professional journals.
Ajit Kumar Ghose, Economist, International Labour Office, Geneva;
co-author (with Keith Griffin) of 'Rural Poverty and Development
Alternatives in South and South-east Asia: Some Policy Issues',
Development and Change (1980) and editor of Agrarian Reform in
Contemporary Developing Countries (1983).
Keith Griffin, President, Magdalen College, Oxford; author of The
Political Economy of Agrarian Change (1974); Land Concentration and
Rural Poverty (1976) International Inequality and National Poverty
(1978); and (with Jeffrey James) The Transition to Egalitarian
Development (1981).
Kimberley Griffin, Research Economist, Central Bank of Botswana;
formerly teacher at the Institute of Finance and Economics, Tianjin.
Azizur Rahman Khan, Economist, World Bank, Washington, DC;
author of The Economy of Bangladesh (1972); co-author (with Dharam
Ghai) of Collective Agriculture and Rural Development in Soviet Central
Asia(1979); co-editor (with three others) of Agrarian Systems and Rural
Development ( 1979).
Eddy Lee, Director, Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion,
Bangkok; author of 'Egalitarian Peasant Farming and Rural
Development: The Case of South Korea', World Development (1979);
editor, Export-led Industrialisation and Development (1981); co-author
(with Rizwanul Islam and Azizur Rahman Khan) of Employment and
Development in Nepal (1982).
Ashwani Saith, Professor, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague;
author of 'Production, Prices and Poverty in Rural India', Journal of
Development Studies (1981) and (with Keith Griffin) Growth and
Equality in Rural China (1981).
X
