On Institutional Framework And Relationships Of Property Rights On The Collective Owned Farmland With Special Reference On Institution Innovation

Farmland property rights relationship refer to the property right relation formed around the farmland between the state, local government, including the collective, individual farmers and other property rights subjects. Among them, the property right relation between the farmer collective and individual farmers within rural collective is the foundation of farmland property rights relationship.Farmland property right structure and farmland property right relations combined constituted farmland property right system. The farmland property construction determines the farmland property relationship.After the founding of China to the reform and opening up, the farmland property right system had undergone several changes. The core of all farmland institution changes was revolved around the relationship between the ownership and the use right of the farmland. In the 1970s, after the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the farmland institution in rural China come to the structural changes as the main content of farmland property rights reform. After the founding of the household contracted responsibility system, the farmland institution had stabled on the collective ownership of agricultural land and the right to land contractual management as the basic framework.However, under the framework of the present farmland property right structure, the property right relationship between the collective and its farmers is unclear and the interest distribution pattern is diversified and uncertainty. The distribution of benefits between the collective and its farmers is uncertainty. Under the current system, there was no clear answers to the following questions:What farmland property rights do the farmers and the collective have? How do they share the interest of the farmland? How does the he right of the collective ownership realized? All these questions related to the infrastructure of the farmland institution. Due to fail to giving clear response to these questions, which led to the result that whatever property rights reform of the farmland is extremely weak when touches on the internal rights relationship of rural collective.In this paper, the author make the "property structure—property relationship—the institution innovation" as the main line of the study and constructed the analysis framework of the property relationship between the collective and its farmer. According to the theory of property rights, certain farmland property right structure inevitable formed certain farmland interest distribution patterns which reflect the economic relationship between the behaviors ultimately. The property right system including the right owned by different right subjects refer to particular object, and the economical relationship between the property right subjects. The nature of the innovation of property system is the adjustment of the distribution of the farmland interest.The study analyses the farmland property system from two aspects including the farmland property right structure and the farmland property right relationship, and points out the problems of the property relationship between the collective and its farmer, and figure out the innovation path of the property rights system. Therefore, it is undoubtedly that the study of the basic questions of the farmland property system will have theoretical significance and practical significance to the farmland property system reform in future.The main conclusions are as follows:(1) The farmer's right for farmland were gradually completed and integrated. Since the founding of New China, the farmland property rights system can be divided into four stages:the private ownership, private ownership with community use, community ownership as well as the community ownership with private use. The distribution of the farmland property rights between the collective and its members is an important part of the farmland institution arrangements. We analyze the changes of the farmland property distribution between the collective and its farms from the four aspects which including the ownership, use, benefits and the transaction for farmland. The results show that the farmland ownership changed form the owned by individual farmers to owned by the collective while taking the farmer as the center; the farmland use rights changed from personal use to the collective use, then the farmers'use right been restored and enhanced; and the farmers' right to benefit had been returned totally to the farmers; while the farmers'transaction right for farmland had been gradual relaxed from the strict restrictions, and accordingly the collective's transaction right for farmland had been restricted by farmers. The authors finally figure out that the future direction for farmland property system reform should adhere to the collective ownership, giving the farmer more independent property in farmland using, beneficiary and transaction rights, and the farmers'right for farmland should be gradually completed and integrated.(2) There are some shortcomings of rural collective internal structure in the right nature, right subject, the right content.There are some shortcomings of rural collective internal structure in the right nature, right subject, and the right content. For the nature of the right, the nature of the collective ownership is fuzzy. For the subject of right, the subject of the ownership is absent and the collective farmers'range is undefined. For the content of the right, the entitlement of the collective ownership is incomplete and the structure of the contracted management right is imperfect. Also, the entitlement boundaries between the collective and its farmers are vague and the interest distribution mechanism is not reasonable. The farmland property right structure is the basis of farmland property right relationship. The incomplete property right structure will affect the clarity and stability of the property right relationship.(3) The collective land ownership, the right to land contractual management and the membership jointly composed the farmland property right system.The essence of the collective land ownership is a kind of indivisible joint ownership to the member of the collective in a certain community. The membership right was reflected in the distribution of the land compensation and the land adjustment. The membership right is an informal but effective rule which is a crucial point rather an evitable problem for farmland property reform in rural China. For a long time, the membership relationship which did not get the attention it deserved was excluded out the formal rules. In fact, the collective land ownership, the right to land contractual management and the membership jointly composed the farmland property right system.(4)The property right mutuality and the property right fuzziness are the main reason of the farmland property right conflict.The essence of the farmland property right conflict is the economical benefit conflict between the property right subjects. Because of the unanimous judgment to the boundaries of right, there would produce conflict when the right subjects exercise their own right. From the aspects of the law and economic theory, the author analyzes the farmland property rights relationship deeply from three aspects including the object, the subject of rights and the content of rights relationship. First, the paper pointed out that the object of farmland rights relationship are scarce, versatility, and externalities. Secondly, the characteristic of the subject of farmland right relationship are diversity and multiplicity of identities. Thirdly, the contents of farmland right relationship can be dividable, derivative and restructured. Finally, the author concluded that the roots of farmland property rights conflicts are due to the mutuality and fuzziness of farmland rights.(5) The path of the farmland property rights reform is the establishment of the membership right and operation the farmland rights of contract to the share.The substance of the farmland property reform is to adjust the property rights in farmland distributed among the different stakeholders. For the right conflict existed in the current farmland property system, the membership right should be set up to make the the right of collective farmers seriously and the farmers can got the benefit because of being the members of the collective. The operation of the farmland contracted management right to the share can make the exchange value of the right to full play. Combination of these two ways, not only to resolve the conflict within the rural collective and clarity the property relationship within the rural collective, but also protect the farmland benefit of the collective and individual farmers, which is preferred path to the current reform of property rights of farmland.