Politics and Paths of Rural Development in China

O w NE OF THE most significant aspects of the economic and social development in rural China since the mid-1980s has been the rise of the conglomerate (VC hereafter). As the most significant and rapidly-growing institution in rural China, where most (73 percent) of China's population still lives, the VC is important in its own right. Moreover, its development has raised broader questions regarding the paths and politics of rural development in China in the 1990s and beyond. Given the large rural population in China, the success of China's modernization program is contingent upon its rural development. If China can find in the VC a structure of promoting economic growth and maintaining social and political stability, the VC's promise cannot be overestimated. If the VC turns out to be a major source for economic, social and political disruption in rural China, the VC's threat cannot be underestimated. The VC's development has also provided a good comparative study of the paths and politics of rural development between Mao's era and the post-Mao era, two of the most important periods of rural development in the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Avillage conglomerate (xiangzonggongsior zonghang) is a comprehensive economic organization under unified leadership whose membership is restricted to a specific village. The VC is a direct descendant of the collective economic activities of the brigade level of the commune system, but as will be elaborated below, it operates in a transformed economic environment. The individual activities of the under the VC fit under the statistical category of village enterprises (VE, xiang qiye), though this category is not restricted to VC projects. This paper is based on primary research on the VCs in Shandong

China · Descendant · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Institution · Modernization theory · Political science · Politics · Population · Rural area · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Demography