The Achievements,Contradictions and Demise of the Rural Collectives in Songzi County,China

The literature on Chinese rural collectives offers different views on the causes of their demise in the early 1980s. Some argue it was a result of egalitarianism and inefficiency, while others emphasize the coercive nature of the decollectivization campaign. Using Songzi County as a case study, this article reviews both the achievements and the problems of the rural collectives and concludes that they can claim some remarkable achievements. It also finds that work avoidance and inefficiency were caused by stratification rather than egalitarianism. While the demise of rural collectives was mostly due to political pressure from the government, the lack of socialist political process contributed to the peasants’ passiveness in failing to resist this major institutional change.