Research On Changes Of Agriculture Operation Institution In Contemporary Anhui Province

Anhui has made great achievements in agriculture and rural economic development since the rural reform. In 2008, Anhui agricultural output valued 141.81 billion yuan, 26.4 times of that (which only reached 5.38 billion yuan) in 1978. The grain output added up to 30.233 million tons, doubled that in 1978. The net income of farmers per capita reached 4202.5 yuan, 36 times more than that in 1978. As China continues its integration into the world economy, Chinese agricultural production and trade has been incorporated into the global framework, more and more closely linked to the worldwide agricultural production and trade. Responding to international competition in agriculture and promoting rural modernization, we must give priority to the development of rural industry, in which it is important to develop modern agricultural industry. For this reason, agriculture operation institution must be improved and innovated on the basis of stability.Agriculture operation institution refers to the combination of the legal norms and conduct codes followed by economic entities when they have economic activities with other entities, the state and the market in a certain form in order to achieve their goals,under certain environmental and technological circumstance with land as the main production material and labor object. Agriculture operation institution reflects relationship between the land managers, the state and the market in some productivity level. In the perspective of industry, agriculture operation institution also mirrors the complex relation between basic industry, modern industry and tertiary sector. Therefore, the study of agriculture operation institution should be understood and explored in a broader perspective, exceeding the confinement of agriculture itself.With the institution environment—institution innovation—institution performance as the analytical framework, the property right relation between the entities of agriculture operation—farmers and lands as the basic logic, the relationship among farmers, the state, the collectives and the market as the perspective, the dissertation explores the flux course of Anhui agriculture operation institution in the dimensions of land property right system, agriculture production organization, national economic system, economic development strategies and agricultural tax system. Changes of contemporary Anhui agriculture operation institution refers to changes and innovations which happened in Anhui,a major agricultural province of China in the concept of space,in the period since the founding of new China in the span of time.As a typical agriculture province,the flux process of Anhui agriculture operating institution reflects the the tortuous evolution course of contemporary Chinese agriculture operations.Institution environment determines institution arrangements, and innovation of institution arrangements conditions system performance which in turn causes institution change. Institution change is not a spontaneous evolution, but subject to various factors, including performance preferences. In the contemporary evolution process of Anhui agriculture operation institution, due to the impact of the institutional environment, the key aspects of performance preferences, the economic performance preference and ideological preference, interacted and manifested as the expansion and convergence of ideology, frustration and innovation of grass-root experiments. The success of Anhui grass-root experiments triggered a series of larger-scale trials, which eventually led to the ideological change of central government. Rural reform has provided a good example in the relation between ideological change and institutional change, and showed how the grass-roots experiments and ideological changes caused the effective institutional change.Ever since the founding of the new China, the changing course of Anhui agriculture operation institution has experienced four historical stages, incluing: phase after land-reform, commune period, Big-contract period and time after tax-fee reform.In different stages, the relationships between farmers and the land, the organization of agricultural production, the state, the market have demonstrated their characteristics respectively, and formed different land property right systems, product distribution systems and tax systems. It is the creation and replacement of these systems that has shaped the clear view of change and innovation in Anhui agriculture operation institution.Land Reform is the first of "three revolutions" in rural society after the founding of new China. Land reform is the basis of adjusting the rural economic and social relations. With the achievement of objectives and institutional arrangements of land-evenly-sharing, economic entities got the realistic path to achieve the potential benefits. Agricultural "Three Reforms" was the first innovation practice in Anhui agriculture operation and achieved better performance. However,the state cast its will into the private property rights of farmers in the land reform movement. When the state changed its will,the private property right of the farmers must be changed. Agricultural co-operative movement was an obvious example.The people's commune system was based on the traditional socialist ideology, and the institutional arrangements were the realistic path to achieve the industrialization of the country. Though it was an "effective" choice, it was not "efficient". Due to the inherent defects in property rights of commune system,the low efficiency of agricultural production couldn't be avoided,which eventually led to the agriculture crisis in 1959-1961. The initiation of "Responsibility Fields" was another innovation to deal with a major agriculture crisis in the field of Anhui agriculture operating institution. "Responsibility Fields" implemented the limited decomposition of the use right in the property right arrangements, changed the supervision and incentive way of the "self-enforcing contracts" in the contract implementation, reduced the transaction costs, decreased "free ride" phenomena, internalized the "externalities" and achieved better institutional performance.In the middle 1970s, Anhui agriculture production was on the brink of collapse in the commune system. "Big Contract System" practised by farmers of Xiaogang village in Anhui province set a starting point for rural reform, and marked the breakthrough of contemporary Chinese reform. The initiative of "Big Contract System" should be attributed to the evolution of the institutional environment. The disequilibrium of the system,the allusion of system device,path dependence,the weakening of ideological rigidity and the convergence of the utility orientation made up the institutional environment in which the "Big Contract System" was generated. The institutional arrangements of household contract responsibility system have remodeled the micro-subjects of the markets,solved the problem of lack of labor supervision and labor incentives,achieved the optimal decision in agriculture production and accomplished the the Pareto improvement in income of the state and the farmers. That is the origin of the occurrence of household contract responsibility system,and also the impetus of its development.The efficiency and effectiveness of institutional arrangements is not only a function of its own, but also the function of other institutional arrangements in the institutional structure. With the deepening of the rural taxation reform and the gradual establishment of market economic system, the environment of agriculture operation has changed dramatically, and the weak nature of agriculture became increasingly obvious. Before Tax-fee reform, Anhui agricultural operation was confronted with new problems which caused the increase of farmers'burden and the slow-down of their income growth. the conflict of interest caused by agriculture income distribution relationship between the state,collectives and farmers was the important institutional origin that aggravated farmers'burden. Tax and fee reform was in fact an interest game in which the state,the grass-root government and the farmers participated the competition as main gamers. The process of rural tax-fee reform is the course of achieving the game balance.Through study on the flux course of Anhui agriculture operation institution, following experiences are attained in the dissertation: The main theme that penetrates the change course of Anhui agriculture operation institution is the land property right reform. land system is the core of the agriculture operation institution and its property right change plays a vital role in the performance of agriculture operation.Institution selection and changes in property right system affect economic growth, which is obviously confirmed by Anhui economic development in agriculture after the big-contract system.The performance of agricultural operations are closely linked to ways of institution changes.In the institution supply system of agriculture operation, expanging the institutional choice set and respecting the innovating spirit of the farmers are of great significance to the effective supply of institutions.This dissertation has seven chapters, comprising the following elements: Chapter I describes the background,the purpose and the significance, domestic and international trends, reflections on the modern institutional economics and the analytical framework, the methods, innovations and shortcomings of the research. Chapter II starts from the concept and clarifies the meaning and relevant factors of the agriculture operation institution, expounds the theory of institution change and erects the theoretical framework of this study. Chapter III to Chapter VI is the core of the paper. It analyses the successive reforms and innovations of Anhui agriculture operation institution in phases of the land reform, the commune period, the big-contract period and tax-fee reform stage, and also, it explains and evaluates the performances with relevant theories. On the basis of the above, chapter VII summarizes the experience of Anhui agriculture operation institution changes, and and puts forward path assumptions of innovating Anhui agriculture operation institution in consideration with the practical problems faced by Anhui agriculture operations.Based on the previous study, the dissertation tries to innovate in the following aspects:(1) The concept and material innovation. First of all, the study seeks to clarify the concept of agriculture operation institution. For the rural basic management system, academics have a clear understanding. As for the agriculture operation institution, there is no basic concetp identity in theorists. The paper analyzes the meaning of agriculture operation institution in the angle of its internal logic and the external linkages. Secondly, with the agriculture area Anhui as the reasearch object which is typical in institution change, the vertical change of Anhui agriculture operation institution as the foundation, the dissertation studies the flux course of Anhui agriculture operation empirically, and accomplishes the breakthrough from macro-abstract to micro-concrete in research material.(2) New study dimensions and analytical framework. With the property right relation between agriculture operation entity and land as the basic logic, the relationship among farmers, the state, the collectives and the market as the perspective, the dissertation explores the flux course of contemporary Anhui agriculture operation institution in new dimensions of land property right system, agriculture production organization, national economic system, economic development strategies and agricultural tax system.With the institution environment—institution innovation—institution performance as the analytical framework, the relevant theories of institution change as the analytical tools, The dissertation applies knowledges of economics,management,sociology and other related theories comprehensively to explore the environment, the process, the reasons, the motivation and the performance of the institutional changes of Anhui agriculture operation, reveals the role of institution innovations, summaries the experience, so as to provide reference for further improvement in agriculture operation institution in Anhui even in whole China.