Historical Conditions Of Chinese Farmers' Political Identity Change (1949-2010)

Political identity not only exists in the longitudinal changing process, but also unfolds the complicated historic landscape at its transverse periods. Peasants'political identity has manifested in the form of a fluctuant curve since 1949. During this period, peasants expressed their approbation and discontent according to the reformation of the social-political environments which rooted from the national institutions. Then the state provided new system supplies and social change according to the peasants'attitude and action. These drawn forth the change of identity and pushed the social development finally. The dissertation gives the omnibearing research about Chinese peasants'political identity from 1949 to 2010; mainly explores the interaction between the national institutions and peasants'political identity, the main variables which influence peasants'political identity, the features and tendencies in the changing course, and the fundamental mechanism which forms peasants'political identity.Chapter one is introduction. It provides a scan of this dissertation through three parts: the research origin and the research significance, the research method and the research sample, the theory framework and the research thinking.Chapter two is the historical review about the formation and the change of peasants'political identity from 1949 to 1978. It mainly comprises three parts: the emancipated liberation and the formation of highly identity, the policy mistakes and identity fluctuation, the commune system and identity continuation. The author believes that the land reform and the repression of counterrevolution made poor people gain the emancipated liberation, it created the class identification owing to appreciation , and then formed the high political identity; the agricultural cooperation movement, people's commune movement, the great leap forward movement and the painful"three years great famine", caused peasants'political identity gradually declined to the bottom; after the famine, policy adjustment, continual political movement and strong revolutionary atmosphere made peasants maintain and perpetuate their political identity, but at the same time, the frequent policy changes and political struggle also made peasants which desire for freedom and pursuit of survival ethics hardly formed the deep identity again.Chapter three indicates the reconstruction and the upsurge of peasants'political identity from 1970's end to mid-1980s, and explains it through four parts: the household contract responsibility system and rural economic renaissance, people commune's disintegration and the building of countryside politics and village governance, the reversion and the change of the traditional village society, the recovery and the alteration of the traditional village culture. The author claims that the formation and the stability of the household contract responsibility system, and the adjustment about the economic-circulation spheres prompted rural economics'renaissance and peasants'income growth; commune system's disintegration and new system's slackness catered for peasants'psychological tendency which was de-politicized; family authority's leading position and village community's reconstruction caused peasants return to the independent and orderly village-life; the recovery of family standard values, folk religion and daily custom solaced farmer's spiritual and cultural needs.Chapter four tells the fluctuation and the wandering of peasants'political identity from mid-1980s to 1970's end; Scholars always called this period the collective outbreak period about"three rural issues"syndrome. The author depicts this period through separate four parts: the income decrease, national extraction and peasants' economic dilemma, the function location of rural regime and violent cadre-mass conflict, the slackness and the disorder of village social in the transition from tradition to modern, the problems in the course of village family culture's collapse and substitute. The author considers that the state-farmer relationship focused on the aspects of taxes'extraction and pay, the farmers'heavy burden, and the stagnation of farmers'income; rural regime's excessive extraction and crude behavior caused severe cadre-mass conflicts; village's disorder, social relation's reduction, social differentiation's intensification, public welfare's dilemma formed the lax and dispossessed villages; community sense's disintegration, benefit concept's development, and the paradox between reality and desire destroyed farmers'spirit satisfaction and value attribution.Chapter five discusses the revival and the obstacles of peasants'political identity after taxation reform. First of all, it expounds the historical conditions about identity revival from four parts: the less-taking and the reduce of peasants'burden, the more-giving and the enhancement of rural public service, the country regime's function change and cadre-mass relationship's detente, the modernity changes about peasants'traditional psychology; The author thinks that that our state has adjusted the concept in dealing with state-peasants relationship as well as the relationship between urban and rural areas in this period, and given the agriculture, countryside and farmers more humane care and financial support, thus conciliated farmer's approval and satisfaction. Secondly, it indicates the large puzzles which currently remain in our peasants'political identity from four parts: peasants'income increasing difficulty and burden's existence, the suspended rural regime and the stiff cadre-mass relationship, weak rural infrastructure and public service construction, and the continuance of village social problems. They were the long-term historical legacy which unresolved, or the inevitable problems in the transformation from tradition to modern, or the problems arose by the new institutional arrangements. So we should remain the cautious optimism on the construction of peasants'political identity.Chapter six was conclusion; it gives a systematic illustration of the important viewpoints in the straight matter. The basic conclusions can be summarized as: national system has dominated the interactive relationship with peasants political identity; satisfied degree of economic interests is the basic variable about identity changing; identity changing realized under the multidimensional interweaving of economic, politic, society and culture; identity changing has shown the differentiation tendency on evaluations to different levels of government; identity changing has reflected the rational and individualized tendency on peasant's political personality; peasants'political identity should be constructed in the framework of national integration.