IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v51y2019i4p650-669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Semi-private Landownership and Capitalist Agriculture in Contemporary China

Author

Listed:
  • Burak Gürel

Abstract

Although the existing scholarship on the capitalist transformation of Chinese agriculture uses the concepts of the Marxist political economy to analyze class differentiation, it has not systematically analyzed the role of the Chinese state (as manifested in the current semi-private land system) in this transformation with reference to Marx’s theory of agricultural rent. Capitalist transformation of Chinese agriculture in the context of continuing strong government control over farmland provides a unique opportunity to assess the validity of Marx’s hypothesis that private landownership is a barrier to capitalist development in agriculture and that state ownership of land is a possible way to overcome it. Analysis highlights two advantages of the current system for the capitalist transformation of Chinese agriculture. First, by enabling local governments to transfer large and consolidated tracts of farmland to agribusiness companies and large farmers and relieving them from the burden of dealing with each and every private owner for land access, the semi-private landownership system minimizes the transaction costs incurred by agrarian capital. Second, farm workers are guaranteed access to small plots of land and this subsidizes agrarian capital by reducing the costs of the reproduction of labor power, thereby putting downward pressure on wages. JEL Classification: P32, P1

Suggested Citation

  • Burak Gürel, 2019. "Semi-private Landownership and Capitalist Agriculture in Contemporary China," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 650-669, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:650-669
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613419849683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419849683
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0486613419849683?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grouiez, Pascal, 2013. "Understanding the puzzling resilience of the land share ownership in Russia: the input of Ostrom’s approach," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 14.
    2. Hsing, You-tien, 2010. "The Great Urban Transformation: Politics of Land and Property in China," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199568048.
    3. Meg Elizabeth Rithmire, 2017. "Land Institutions and Chinese Political Economy," Politics & Society, , vol. 45(1), pages 123-153, March.
    4. Zhu, Ling & Jiang, Zhongyi, 1993. "From Brigade to Village Community: The Land Tenure System and Rural Development in China," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 17(4), pages 441-461, December.
    5. Keijiro Otsuka & Yanyan Liu & Futoshi Yamauchi, 2016. "The future of small farms in Asia," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(3), pages 441-461, May.
    6. Thomas Markussen & Finn Tarp & Do Huy Thiep & Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, 2016. "Inter- and intra-farm land fragmentation in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series 011, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Heston, Alan & Kumar, Dharma, 1983. "The persistence of land fragmentation in peasant agriculture: An analysis of South Asian cases," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 199-220, April.
    8. Thomas Markussen & Finn Tarp & Do Huy Thiep & Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, 2016. "Inter- and intra-farm land fragmentation in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-11, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Kung, James Kai-sing, 2002. "Off-Farm Labor Markets and the Emergence of Land Rental Markets in Rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 395-414, June.
    10. Ho, Peter, 2005. "Institutions in Transition: Land Ownership, Property Rights, and Social Conflict in China," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199280698.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jia, Lili, 2012. "Land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 66, number 66.
    2. Nguyen, Huy, 2014. "The effect of land fragmentation on labor allocation and the economic diversity of farm households: The case of Vietnam," MPRA Paper 57521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Cao, Yueming & Bai, Yunli & Zhang, Linxiu, 2021. "Plot Size, Adjacency, and Farmland Rental Contract Choice," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315378, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Meina Cai & Jianyong Fan & Chunhui Ye & Qi Zhang, 2021. "Government debt, land financing and distributive justice in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(11), pages 2329-2347, August.
    5. Ran Liu & Tai-Chee Wong & Shenghe Liu, 2012. "Peasants' Counterplots against the State Monopoly of the Rural Urbanization Process: Urban Villages and ‘Small Property Housing’ in Beijing, China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(5), pages 1219-1240, May.
    6. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, September.
    7. Daniel Abramson, 2011. "Transitional Property Rights and Local Developmental History in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(3), pages 553-568, February.
    8. Tu, Vo Hong & Kopp, Steven W. & Trang, Nguyen Thuy & Hong, Nguyen Bich & Yabe, Mitsuyasu, 2021. "Land accumulation: An option for improving technical and environmental efficiencies of rice production in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Cai, Meina & Liu, Pengfei & Wang, Hui, 2020. "Political trust, risk preferences, and policy support: A study of land-dispossessed villagers in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Xiaoyong Li & Giuseppe T. Cirella & Yali Wen & Yi Xie, 2020. "Farmers’ Intentions to Lease Forestland: Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Tran, Duc & Vu, Ha Thu & Goto, Daisaku, 2022. "Agricultural land consolidation, labor allocation and land productivity: A case study of plot exchange policy in Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 455-473.
    12. Tran, Tuyen Quang & Vu, Huong Van, 2019. "Land fragmentation and household income: First evidence from rural Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Qiu, Tongwei & Boris Choy, S.T. & Li, Shangpu & He, Qinying & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Does land renting-in reduce grain production? Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Zhou, Changchang & Chan, Roger C.K., 2022. "State-scalar politics of rural land reform in China: The case of Wujin district," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    15. Li, Fang & Feng, Shuyi & Lu, Hualiang & Qu, Futian & D’Haese, Marijke, 2021. "How do non-farm employment and agricultural mechanization impact on large-scale farming? A spatial panel data analysis from Jiangsu Province, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    16. Bui, Quang Nhat & Hoang, Trung Xuan & Nguyen, Minh Khac & Nguyen, Trung Tien, 2020. "Land fragmentation, women empowerment and school dropout of children in Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    17. Yinhao Wu & Hengyun Ma, 2022. "How Much Farmland Are Farmers Willing to Lease? The Construction and Evaluation of a Farmland Transfer Supply Function with Application to a Case Study in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    18. Mekki, Insaf & Bailly, Jean Stéphane & Jacob, Frédéric & Chebbi, Hichem & Ajmi, Tarek & Blanca, Yves & Zairi, Abdelaziz & Biarnès, Anne, 2018. "Impact of farmland fragmentation on rainfed crop allocation in Mediterranean landscapes: A case study of the Lebna watershed in Cap Bon, Tunisia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 772-783.
    19. Jing Xu & Jing Huang & Zhengfeng Zhang & Xiaokun Gu, 2021. "The Impact of Family Capital on Farmers’ Participation in Farmland Transfer: Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, December.
    20. Wang, Hui & Riedinger, Jeffrey & Jin, Songqing, 2015. "Land documents, tenure security and land rental development: Panel evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 220-235.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; capitalist agriculture; land privatization; state; peasant;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P32 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Collectives; Communes; Agricultural Institutions
    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:650-669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.