Polanyi and the Peasant Question in China: State, Peasant, and Land Relations in China, 1949–Present

Julia Chuang and John Yasuda
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Julia Chuang: University of Maryland
John Yasuda: Johns Hopkins University

Politics & Society, 2022, vol. 50, issue 2, 311-347

Abstract: This article applies Karl Polanyi’s concept of a double movement to the trajectory of rural state policies in China since 1949. It argues that Chinese socialism created a contradictory social contract that has fueled an ongoing struggle between state and peasantry over the surplus generated from rural land. This struggle has shaped a historical oscillation between state policies that facilitate extraction of agricultural surpluses and policies that introduce social protections in the form of household farming and revitalized collective ownership. Based on secondary sources, this article compares the arc of rural policies during the Mao era and in the transition to and during the current state capitalist period. Then, based on original interview-based and ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in rural Sichuan Province, it analyzes the current introduction of urban and agrarian capital into the rural economy, revealing dynamics of a current countermovement from state-led extraction to compromise.

Keywords: Polanyi; agrarian transition; state capitalism; China; peasant politics; urbanization; land politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:50:y:2022:i:2:p:311-347

DOI: 10.1177/00323292211032753

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