LandCirculation_TheRe_省略_ofRuralStratifi

ing the villagers cast their votes not in favorof the person they considered the best leader,or even the person they thought could pro-tect them, but in favor of the person mostlikely to build a road.

According to the most basic model ofdemocratic election based on the principleof public choice, in an election governed bybasic electoral procedures, the candidateenjoying the support of the majority of thevoters should be elected. In a democraticelection campaign, the provision of publicgoods is often one of the most importantmeans by which different candidates win thevoters’ support. At the national level, a na-tional government needs to provide a multi-tude of public goods that involve the inter-ests of various segments of society, so it israrely the case that the provision of a singleitem determines the course of the election.But at the village level, the provision of aparticular item of important public goods mayoften be attained only through the efforts ofseveral generations of leaders due to thescarcity of public resources, so that it tendsto have a direct influence on the result of theelection.

(Translated by Lin HongRevised by Sally Borthwick)

Land Circulation: The Restruc-turing of Rural Stratification

Chen Chengwen & Luo Zhongyong, Depart-ment of Sociology, Hunan Normal Univer-sity

Hunan Shifan Daxue shehi kexue xuebao,2006, no. 4

As an important practice in the market-

oriented reform of land rights in contempo-rary China’s rural areas, land circulation willnot only bring about large-scale free flowand re-combination of the factors of pro-ductions – land, labor, capital and technology,bringing into play a new and greater effec-tiveness and gains from land resources. Moreimportantly, it will encourage the creation ofnew industries, new organizations and newoccupations, thus triggering a new round ofstructural mobility and restructuring ruralsocial strata. Firstly, land circulation will helpstrengthen the elite rural stratum. On the onehand, the power elite will have much greateropportunities to obtain resources through theinstitutionalized power of land control dur-ing the process of land circulation. On theother hand, the rural economic elites whoarise in the course of land circulation suchas agricultural corporations, big farminghouseholds, real estate developers and inves-tors in secondary and tertiary industry willkeep expanding their power and scale ofoperation. Secondly, the middle stratum willbe enlarged: (1) Land circulation will createnew occupational groups, that is, the pro-cess of land circulation will give rise to lowand middle level technicians and managerialstaff who work for agricultural corporationsand investment companies in secondary andtertiary industry, developers and users ofagricultural technology who provide techni-cal services for industrialized farmingoperations, and social administrative person-nel who work for land intermediary serviceinstitutions. (2) Land circulation will promotethe revival and development of traditionalrural strata. In the course of land circulationtraditional rural strata such as smallbusinessmen, clerks, low-level adminis-

ABSTRACTS159

trators, and educational and medical work-ers will be further enhanced, and the revivalof individual transport services, small-scaleprocessing businesses, the food and bever-age retail trade and information services willexpand the relevant occupational groups. (3)It will also strengthen the group of ruralworkers. Migrant workers, workers in town-ship and village enterprises and workers oncorporate farms will all develop and grow,and further transcend the land and the origi-nal rural society. Lastly, land circulation willreduce the bottom rural stratum of weakgroups. Ordinary farmers with no sidelineoccupations, those who have lost their landand have no other job opportunities and nostable income and other idle labor belong tothe bottom stratum. They make up a smallproportion of the rural population and theirnumber will decrease as the land circulates.

Land circulation serves as a special so-cial ladder for peasants to achieve mobility.Firstly, it may serve as a social ladder forupward mobility. When the land is leased out,land-owning peasants can get a steady in-come in the form of land rent, throw off theshackles of cyclical land operation, realizelong-distance mobility in terms of space andturn freely to non-farming occupations, thusmaking upward mobility in terms of occu-pation and status a reality. On the other hand,peasants on the outskirts of cities will ben-efit from the added value of land as a resultof urbanization: they will get a high incomein the form of land rent, dividend or houserent, or turn to non-farming activities oroccupations, thus realizing upward mobilityin economic and social status. If they leasein the land, they will be able to carry on in-dustrialized farming operations and increasetheir revenue from economies of scale. As aresult, people used to simply tilling the soilwill become farm owners and “men ofproperty,” their life space will expand fromthe local community to the outside world andboth their occupational status and social pres-tige will rise. However, land circulation mayalso be a social ladder to downward mobilityfor some peasants. Land circulation basedon their voluntary and conscious rationalchoices will lead to upward mobility forthem, but forced circulation through admin-istrative coercion may result in the loss offundamental safeguards for their survival anddrive them into a highly marginal state.

Some new features and trends havestarted to take shape as rural social stratifi-cation changes in the course of landcirculation.

Firstly, an overall elite stratum has comeinto being. (1) Making use of the vaguenessof laws and regulations, rural power eliteshave legally or illegally obtained a large quan-tity of resources and opportunities in thecourse of land circulation and constantly uti-lized their power and position to further in-stitutionalize and legalize the possessions andopportunities they have seized. (2) In orderto get support and a green light from thepower elites during land circulation, ruraleconomic elites keep competing and gamingwith them and the two groups have gradu-ally formed a firm alliance of interests.Moreover, they try to maintain the size andboundary of the overall elite group and keepout other social groups.

Secondly, the structure of social stratain the countryside has begun to fall into apattern. This is expressed mainly in thefollowing: the formation of boundaries be-

160SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CHINAWinter 2007

tween different social strata; the emergenceof identity within each rural stratum; and thedecrease of rural inter-stratum mobility.

Thirdly, education has replaced land cir-culation as a social ladder for rural socialmobility. Education has a dual influence overthe transition of the structure of social stratain the countryside after land circulation: itreplicates or reproduces the original socialstructure, while providing a channel forchanging and fine-tuning it. A high propor-tion of the children at the bottom of ruralsociety may be stuck in the strata in whichthey live under the entrenched influence ofthe culture of their surroundings and only afew will be able to escape from the cycle ofstratum reproduction. However, it is differ-ent for children from middle-stratum ruralfamilies: they will be encouraged by theirfamilies to get qualifications and becomeupwardly mobile by making use of the so-cial capital they gain during their study andother chance opportunities.

(Translated by Lin HongRevised by Sally Borthwick)

Based on an analysis of China’s birth con-trol policy, this paper will sum up experi-ence and lessons from the past, assess somespurious historical conclusions and put for-ward suggestions for the improvement ofChina’s future population policy.

China’s population regulation and con-trol policy and practice in the past halfcentury

The population regulation and controlpolicy in the past 50 odd years since thefounding of New China has gone throughfour stages. The first was from 1950 to1965. In 1953, the Ministry of Public Healthpromulgated Methods of Contraception andInduced Abortion, indicating the initial inten-tion of the government to incorporate popu-lation reproduction into state “planning.” In19, the Family Planning Commission un-der the State Council was set up. When re-viewing the population policy of this stage,we must bear in mind the following threepoints: one, the lasses-faire reproductionpolicy of the early 1950s was a phenomenoncommon to all countries after the SecondWorld War; two, the attack on Ma Yinchu(1882-1982; a famous Chinese economist anddemographer who advocated a populationcontrol policy in China) did not lead to anuncontrolled rise in the birthrate; three,“planned births” at this stage were similar tofamily planning in the West and differed fromthe practice after the 1970s. The second stagewas from 1966 to 1976. The Cultural Revo-lution adversely affected family planning be-cause it paralyzed the leading organizationsin charge of family planning. However, the“revolutionary committees” at all levels still

Historical Changes and ReformTrends in China’s Population Con-trol Policy

Zhang Yi, Institute of Population and LaborEconomics, the Chinese Academy of SocialSciences

Guangzhou Daxue xuebao, 2006, no. 8There can be no doubt of the signifi-cance of a review of the merits and demeritsof China’s population regulation and controlpolicy since 1949 and exploration of the fu-ture direction of population policy reform.