State, Market and Life Chances in Contemporary Rural Chinese Society: Evidence from Guangdong

188 Pages·2015·3.379 MB·English

by  Nabo Chen (auth.)

Nabo Chen
State, Market
and Life Chances in
Contemporary Rural
Chinese Society
Evidence from Guangdong
State, Market and Life Chances in Contemporary
Rural Chinese Society

Nabo Chen
State, Market and Life
Chances in Contemporary
Rural Chinese Society
Evidence from Guangdong
Nabo Chen
Department of Public Management
School of Government
Sun Yat-sen University
Guangzhou , China
ISBN 978-3-662-45045-1 ISBN 978-3-662-45046-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-45046-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944073
Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
“Translation from the Chinese language edition: (cid:3373)(cid:4582)(cid:451)(cid:5170)(cid:3434)(cid:1086)(cid:1996)(cid:8769)(cid:11087)(cid:9067)(cid:7530)(cid:18039)(cid:3)(cid:726)(cid:7573)(cid:14362)(cid:1117)(cid:3373)(cid:5295)(cid:1100)(cid:1996)(cid:7553)
(cid:11444)(cid:13567)(cid:20668)(cid:3)(1978–2004) by Nabo Chen, © Central Compilation & Translation Press 2010. All rights
reserved © Central Compilation & Translation Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH 2015
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Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 Overview of the Study ........................................................................ 1
1.2 The State, Market and Life Chances: The Puzzles
and How They Are Explained ............................................................. 5
1.3 Preview of the Remaining Chapters ................................................... 7
References ................................................................................................... 8
2 Literature Review and the Framework of the Study ............................. 11
2.1 Literature Review ............................................................................... 11
2.1.1 Rural Social Stratifi cation in Mao’s China: A Background .... 11
2.1.2 The Market Transition Debate ................................................ 14
2.1.3 New Institutional Analysis ...................................................... 15
2.2 Analytical Framework of the Thesis ................................................... 18
2.2.1 Unsolved Puzzles and New Directions ................................... 18
2.3 Methodologies and the Field Site ....................................................... 30
2.3.1 The Character of the Research Methodology ......................... 30
2.3.2 The Field Sites ........................................................................ 33
2.4 Summary ............................................................................................. 35
References ................................................................................................... 35
3 Market Penetration and the Life Chances of Peasants
in Guangdong: An Historical Account .................................................... 41
3.1 Market Penetration in Guangdong ...................................................... 41
3.1.1 The Origin of Market Penetration ........................................... 42
3.1.2 Market Penetrations: Phases and Regional Variations ............ 43
3.2 The Increase and Distribution of Earning Sources ............................. 53
3.3 Intergovernmental Revenue Sharing and Peasants’
Life Chances ....................................................................................... 55
3.3.1 Intergovernmental Revenue Sharing
in China—An Overview ......................................................... 56
3.3.2 Market Penetration and Revenue Sharing
Between the State and Rural Society ...................................... 62
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vi Contents
3.3.3 Market Penetration, Intergovernmental Revenue
Sharing, and Peasant’s Life Chances ...................................... 68
3.4 Summary ............................................................................................. 71
References ................................................................................................... 72
4 A New Cooperative Economy .................................................................. 77
4.1 An Introduction to Fan Township ....................................................... 79
4.1.1 Market Penetration in Fan Township ...................................... 79
4.1.2 The Emergence of the New Cooperative Economy ................ 80
4.1.3 An Introduction to the New Cooperative Economy ................ 82
4.2 Peasants’ Lives in the New Cooperative Economy ............................ 87
4.2.1 The Sources of Earnings of Peasants ...................................... 87
4.2.2 The Welfare of Rural Fan Township ....................................... 90
4.3 Intergovernmental Revenue Sharing and Cadres’ Governance .......... 93
4.3.1 From Distributors to Managers: The Village
Cadres in Fan Township .......................................................... 94
4.4 The Stratifi cation Results in Rural Fan Township .............................. 104
4.5 Summary and Discussion ................................................................... 106
References ................................................................................................... 106
5 An Outskirt Economy ............................................................................... 109
5.1 Lee Township and Its Market Penetration .......................................... 109
5.2 The Earnings of Peasants in Lee Township ........................................ 111
5.2.1 Peasants’ Earnings in Local Areas .......................................... 112
5.2.2 Earning from Migrant Wage Work and Migrant Business ...... 114
5.3 Revenue Sharing in Lee Township ..................................................... 116
5.4 From Redistributors to “Volunteer Firemen” ..................................... 119
5.4.1 The Constitution of Village Cadres in Lee Township ............. 120
5.4.2 The Jobs of Village Cadres in Lee Township .......................... 123
5.5 The Stratifi cation Results of Rural Lee Township .............................. 128
5.5.1 The Advantages of Village Cadres .......................................... 128
5.5.2 Peasants’ Lives in Lee Township ............................................ 129
5.6 Summary and Discussion ................................................................... 134
References ................................................................................................... 135
6 A Local Economy ...................................................................................... 137
6.1 Market Penetration in Chan Township ............................................... 137
6.2 The Village Cadres as Assistants of Predators .................................... 139
6.2.1 Revenue Sharing Between the Local Governments
and Rural Society .................................................................... 139
6.3 Stratifi cation Results in Rural Chan Township ................................... 150
6.3.1 The Advantages of Village Cadres .......................................... 150
6.3.2 The “Get” and “Lose” of Peasants in Chan Township ............ 151
6.4 Summary and Discussion ................................................................... 156
References ................................................................................................... 157
Contents vii
7 Conclusions and Implications .................................................................. 159
7.1 Summary of the Findings ................................................................... 159
7.2 The Findings Intepreted ...................................................................... 161
7.2.1 Earning Source Distribution and Rural People’s
Access Patterns ....................................................................... 161
7.2.2 Beyond Guangdong ................................................................ 165
7.2.3 Structure and Life Chances in Transforming Economies ....... 166
7.3 Limitations .......................................................................................... 172
References ................................................................................................... 173
Appendix: Informant List .............................................................................. 1 75
Bibliography .................................................................................................... 179

List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 Overview of the study ...................................................................... 4
Fig. 2.1 Administrative hierarchy governing townships
of the research sites .......................................................................... 31
Fig. 3.1 Number of individual family businesses (ten thousands) ................ 46
Fig. 3.2 New cooperative economy in Guangdong Province ........................ 52
Fig. 3.3 Local economies in Guangdong Province ........................................ 52
Fig. 3.4 Outskirt economies in Guangdong Province .................................... 53
Fig. 3.5 The contribution of the fi ve main taxes to the state’s tax ................. 67
Fig. 4.1 The location of Fan Township .......................................................... 78
Fig. 4.2 Administrative structure of Fan Township ....................................... 83
Fig. 4.3 The culture activity center of Long Village ...................................... 91
Fig. 4.4 The hospital of Long Village ............................................................ 92
Fig. 4.5 The offi ce building of Long Village administration ......................... 101
Fig. 5.1 The location of Lee Township .......................................................... 110
Fig. 5.2 The administrative framework of Lee Township .............................. 121
Fig. 5.3 A village offi ce building in Lee Township ....................................... 125
Fig. 6.1 The location of Chan Township ....................................................... 138
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