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China's Campaign to Build a New Socialist Countryside: Village Modernization, Peasant Councils, and the Ganzhou Model of Rural Development*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2015

Kristen E. Looney
Kristen E. Looney*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Email: kl705@georgetown.edu.
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Abstract

Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese government has promoted village modernization under the banner of “building a new socialist countryside.” To explain the origins and outcomes of this policy, this article examines the case of Ganzhou city in Jiangxi province. Ganzhou became a national model for rural development known for involving organizations called peasant councils in policy implementation. The study found that despite an initial emphasis on rural participation and moderate change, the new socialist countryside evolved into a top-down campaign to demolish and reconstruct villages. Three factors shaped this process: the strength of bureaucratic mobilization, the weakness of rural organizations, and shifting national policy priorities. After obtaining model status, Ganzhou's rural policy became more ambitious and politicized, leaving little space for participation. This insight suggests there are both benefits and costs to China's policy process. Despite the advantages of policy innovation, scaling up local experiments may actually undermine their success.

摘要

21 世纪头十年的中期以来, 中国政府在建设社会主义新农村的口号之下推动乡村现代化。本文通过分析江西省赣州市的案例试图解释该政策的来龙去脉。赣州作为农村发展的全国性模式, 利用农民理事会推动政策实行。本研究发现, 尽管政策最初强调农民参与和渐进式改变, 但是在很多地方, 新农村建设最后演化成一场自上而下、大拆大建的运动。造成这个结果有三个因素: 行政体制过于强势, 农民组织的孱弱, 以及国家政策的转变。在成功取得国家模式地位后, 赣州的农村政策变得更加雄心勃勃, 其目的趋向政治化, 农民参与的空间更为压缩。这种见解显示, 中国的政策制定和实施既有实惠, 又有代价。尽管地方政策创新获益良多, 然而从地方实验提升到国家政策将削弱其成功。

Keywords

building a new socialist countrysideChina; rural developmentrural housingpolitical participationpolicy implementation建设社会主义新农村农村发展乡村住房政治参与政策实施
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 224 , December 2015 , pp. 909 - 932
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Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Fulbright-Hays Program and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I want to thank Elizabeth Perry, Roderick MacFarquhar, Timothy Colton, Katharine Moon, Meg Rithmire, Didi Kuo, Kyle Jaros, Maria Repnikova, Rachel Stern, Christine Kim, Joel Andreas, Jennifer Hsu, Cal Clark, Edward Gibson and Richard Locke for providing helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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