A Study On Governance Of Land Expropriation Conflicts In China

Land expropriation conflicts (LECs) in China has become one of the most important problems to disturb the stability of rural society and development of economy in the background of accelerated urbanization and comprehencive transformation of social economy. Valid governance of LECs is needed. The governance status of LECs, however, can not match the threats of the problems on the societial economy and stability. The faults of the governance include severely insuffiecient, single governance subjects, simple treatments, low effect and efficiency. Combining the newest results of international land conflicts research and the special situation in China, this dissertation puts forward the notion of governance of LECs, with the analysis of the fault of "Zero-Sum" governance logic, the reconstruction of "Co-Win" logic, the rethinking of the nature of LECs, and the construction of "relationship-governance" theory. At the end of the dissertation, the pluralization of governance subjects and the tools are discussed.The main conclusions include:(1) The subject of LECs governance should be pluralised.The subject of the existing LECs governance is singularized. The truth that government is the only subject leads to the governance dysfunction of government in LECs. The potential subject in LECs governance include the rural autonomy organizations, the non-governing elites and the neutral third parties. Different subjects have otherness in resource gift and governance effect. The identification and charaters may have important influence on governance effect of LECs. These conclusions indicate that the subject of LECs governance should be pluralised to take full advantage of the otherness.The pluralization of governance subject should be realized in a comprehensive framework, which could be divided into two level, the macro one, in which central government is the main subject, and the micro one, in which local government, rural autonomy organizations and non-governing elites, and neutral third parties are promoted to divide and cooperate.(2) The object of LECs governance should be the social relationships during the land expropriations. The existing LECs governance in China chosen the "conflict behavior" to be governace object, which led to several limitations. This dissertation started with the research on participation behaviors of farmers in LECs. Then the governance of LECs is discussed on the level of motivations and stimulations of those behaviors. Based on the Contextual Model of Korf, this dissertation presented the Background-Contextual Model to analyze the farmers'participation behaviors in LECs. The factors and influence route were explored by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the data from questionnaire conducted on farmer families in Tongcheng City, Anhui Province. Though the results of SEM do not prove all those hypothesis inherent in the ECM, there are motivations and stimulations for farmers'participation behaviors in LECs. It's also proven that BCM could analyze LECs in China. These conclusions provide a new way for LECs governance, by indicating that the governance object should be social relationships in land expropriations, not the conflict behavior itself.The relationship governance could start from the governance on the relationships between cadres and the farmers in rural China, the governance on the manners and attitudes of workers during land expropritions, the governance on curruptions in land expropriations issues, and the governance on the distributions of land expropriation compensations in the village.(3) The governance of LECs should be based on "Co-Win" logic.The governance status of LECs has been characterized obviously by the "Zero-Sum" logic, which could lead to serious effects on the governance of LECs, even lead to the opposite ones. The statics comparison analysis of the zero-sum model between farmers and local government during the process of land expropriations show us that without the fundamental change of the zero-sum interest distribution structure in LECs, the strengthen of the governance wishes of central government on LECs may be not able to achieve the aim of reducing LECs, on the contrary, it may encourage the conflict behaviors of farmers and local governors.By examing the incidence of LECs on provincial scales, the dissertation found that LECs in China are strongly spatial correlated. Regions with high incidence of LECs are neighbored, while the ones with low incidence are neighbored too. A regression model was used to explore the factors of LECs incidence in China, which shown us that the provincial incidences of LECs are proportional to the ratio between land grant fees and regional city maintainance and constuction fund, and inversely proportional to the per capita cultivated land. The regurity of LECs indicates that the nature of LECs in China is realistic interest conflict. Based on that conclusion, "Co-Win" is introduced to be the logic of LECs governance, which means that the governance of LECs should be guided by the principle of achiving the co-win among all the different stakeholders during the land expropriations. The transformation from "Zero-Sum" to "Co-Win" structure of interest distribution during land expropriations is critical to "Co-Win" logic. The "Co-Win" logic will give us important inspirations on the reformation of land expropriation institutions and the choice of governance mode of LECs in China.(4) Several innovations in governance means should be introduced into LECs governance.Innovations in governance means is needed immidiately. This dissertation constructed a result evaluation model and a early warning model of LECs, based on BP neural network. Reslt of LECs is evaluated from lost in human, lost in economy, effect on society and polity. Early warning level is evaluatede from special characteristics of the land expropriation project, regional land expropriation management, the LECs governance ability of the local government and its department, and the regional social base. The two model run well, which means that LECs early warning could be introduced into LECs governance.Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is always a important part of rural society governance in China. Though it has faults to misfit the governace of those LECs in which local governments involved as important stakeholders, it could be adjusted. A suggestion is LECs Conciliation Committee, which should be organized by trisection.