The Transformation of Governance in Rural China: Market, Finance, and Political Authority [Paperback]

Explores the economic, social and financial changes that have transformed China's rural governance over the past twenty years.Utilising extensive field research and data collected from surveys across rural China, An Chen provides an in-depth exploration of the transformation of governance in rural China following two major tax reforms: the tax-for-fee reform of 20024, and the abolition of agricultural taxes (AAT) in 20056.Utilising extensive field research and data collected from surveys across rural China, An Chen provides an in-depth exploration of the transformation of governance in rural China following two major tax reforms: the tax-for-fee reform of 20024, and the abolition of agricultural taxes (AAT) in 20056.The outbreak of organised, violent peasant protests across the Chinese countryside from the late 1990s to the early 2000s has attracted much scholarly interest. In this study, An Chen endeavours to understand from these protests the question of the Chinese government's control in the countryside and the impact of this violent resistance on China's rural governance in the context of market liberalisation. Utilising extensive field research and data collected from surveys across rural China, the book provides an in-depth exploration of how rural governance in China has been transformed following two major tax reforms: the tax-for-fee reform of 20024, and the abolition of agricultural taxes (AAT) in 20056. In a multidimensional analysis which combines approaches from political science, economics, finance and sociology, Chen argues that private economic power has merged with political power in a way that has reshaped village governance in China, threatening to fundamentally change its political structure.1. Introduction; 2. The changing foundations of Communist rule in China's rural society; 3. The 1994 tax reform and rural fiscal crises; 4. The township in the era of reform; 5. The mechanisms of political power in villages; 6. Village finance: its det