Theory And Practice Of China’s Urban And Rural Economic Development

Urban and rural development is the inexorable law of development of urbanization, is the overall trend of economic and social development. In the reform and opening up, China, as the world’s fastest developing country, has made remarkable achievements in getting rid of the dual structure and eliminating the gap between urban and rural areas. Due to the natural environment, geographic conditions, history and other factors, China’s urban-rural dual system has not been changed substantially. The gap between urban and rural areas is still growing. The development process of developed countries shows that resolving the urban-rural dual economic structure is the required task so as to get into the list of developed countries. Since2003, when the Congress Party first proposed that urban and rural economic and social development is the major task to build a moderately prosperous society, the urban and rural development has become an important research topic at present and in the future. This thesis, basing on the in-depth study of theory and practice of urban and rural areas and abroad, taking example of Chengdu urban and rural comprehensive reform pilot area, discusses China’s urban and rural development of the law and the realization of the path, hopes to provide reference for theorists and practical workers in this area.1. The Main Content of this ThesisThis thesis is divided into nine chapters. The first is introduction. The structure can be broadly divided into two parts. The first part is from Chapter II to Chapter V, the literature review, the basic theory and some practice at home and abroad. The last four chapters are the second part which investigates ways and means to promote China’s urban and rural development.(1) Introduction. It introduces the background, purpose meaning, the scope of the study and research ideas, contents and methods, concludes the innovation and weaknesses.(2) Literature Review of China and Abroad. It reviewed a number of related theoretical studies and briefly comments. Section I, the study of relations of urban and rural development in the foreign countries. It describes Marxist theory of the relationship between urban and rural areas, Johann Heinrich von Thunen’s "isolated state" theory, Howard’s garden city theory, Lewis’s "dual economy" theory, Myrdal’s cumulative causation theory, McKee’s Asia urban and rural development mode and other representative foreign theories of urban and rural development and comments are made to these theories. Section Ⅲ, Research of the domestic urban and rural development. It summarizes urban and rural development of domestic academic research process since the establishment of new China. Section IV, Research and Comment. The theories of Urban and rural development developed rapidly and the research is doing deeply. Some basic agreements have been reached, but there are still theoretical systems to be improved. The scope of the study is relatively limited, the content is not rich enough, the evaluation involves small, and the persistent evaluation is short.(3) Development, Change and Practice of Relations between Urban and Rural Development at Home and Abroad. It traces the history of the relationship between domestic and international evolution of urban and rural development, sorts and studies the lessons learned from urban and rural development and enlightenment. Section I, the evolution and inspiration of relations between urban and rural development abroad. Urban-rural relations of United States, Britain, France and other European countries, as the process of industrialization, along with the historical trajectory "unite-divide-unite" is entering the advanced stage of integration of urban and rural areas. The developing countries such as India chose rural industrialization as the co-development strategy of the rural and urban areas. It concludes experiences from these countries’practice. Section II, Changes and practices of relations between urban and rural areas in China since the founding of New China. Relations between rural and urban areas have experienced three stages:the appearance of gap, the narrow of the gap, rapidly expanding of the gap and then coordinating of development. It can be summarized into three phases:the priority to the development of the city, development of urban and rural areas and co-ordinate the development of urban and rural areas.(4) Background and Practical Conditions of the Development of China’s urban and rural areas. It introduces the basic trend of development of China’s urban-rural economic and social dual structure and analyzes the problems of urban-rural dual structure and explains the support of China’s urban and rural development. Section I, the reality of development of economic and social urban-rural dual structure. It analyzes the status of China’s urban-rural dual structure from the allocation of production factors, production and lifestyle, income, infrastructure and social undertakings. Section II, the analysis of formation of the economic and social dual structure of urban and rural areas. It analyzes reasons for the formation of economic and social dual structure of urban and rural areas from a macro perspective. Section III, the historical necessity and practical significance of urban and rural development. It analyzes the influence of urban and rural development on implement the scientific concept of development, building a socialist new countryside, building a socialist harmonious society from the practical significance and a historical necessity. Section IV, the analysis of support to co-development of urban and rural areas. It analyzes the basis for the development of China’s urban and rural conditions from industrialization, urbanization, financial investment, the rural financial system and other aspects.(5) The Theoretical Basis of Urban and Rural Development. It evaluates of theoretical framework China’s urban and rural development, explain the scientific connotation of urban and rural development and basic theoretical issues and set up the theoretical framework of this thesis. Section I, the theoretical basis of urban and rural development. It discusses mainly the Marx and Engels theory of urban-rural relations, development economics, division of labor organization theory, institutional change theory. Section II, the theoretical framework of urban and rural development. The scientific content of urban-rural development is that dealing urban-rural relations with co-ordinate approach, solving fundamentally the "three rural" issues, breaking the urban-rural dual structure, fusing of urban and rural areas and promoting sustainable economic and social development. Urban and rural development includes development of urban and rural economy, urban and rural culture, urban and rural politics, urban and rural social undertakings and other aspects. It is the result of a variety of external factors such as dynamic mechanism of market economy, the city spreading power mechanism, the internal rural dynamics mechanism and other external dynamic mechanisms.(6) The Strategic Thinking and the Overall Path of Urban-rural Development. It stated strategy objectives, priorities and means of Chinese urban-rural development, put forward its path to achieve urban-rural development. Section Ⅰ, the strategic thinking of urban-rural development. Urban-rural development objective is to achieve the most direct urban-rural integration, and its strategic focus on urban planning, industrial layout, infrastructure, and public services integration. The strategic means are the linkage development such as new industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. Section II, the overall path of urban-rural development. It analyzes the "six integration" development path such as urban-rural development, urban-rural spatial distribution, urban-rural infrastructure, urban-rural industrial development, urban-rural public services, urban-rural resources, urban-rural ecological protection and so on.(7) Chengdu Model of Urban-rural Development-Research on Chengdu "Test Area". It sums up the idea, the basic experience and key areas of Chengdu urban-rural development, and an empirical analysis to Chengdu model. Section Ⅰ, the main goal and the general idea of urban-rural development of Chengdu City. Section Ⅱ, the focus area of urban-rural development of Chengdu City. The urban-rural integration construction of Chengdu City, with emphasis on industry interaction, finance, banking, land, public services and social management, social security, employment, administration and other aspects of exploration, focuses on building a new urban-rural relation. Section Ⅲ, the basic experience of urban-rural development of Chengdu City."Chengdu model" creates a typical distinctive pattern, especially in planning, product supply, allocation of production factors, the rural reform of property rights, grassroots governance has made outstanding achievements, and the number of attempts in other parts of China provides a good practical experience. Section Ⅳ, the analysis of specificity and universality to urban-rural development of "Chengdu model"."Chengdu model" has its particularity, other areas cannot copy. At the same time "Chengdu model" approach also has many universals in the industrial development, rural resources, investment and financing platform, increasing farmers’ income, etc. There are still a lot of practice and experience to learn from other regions.(8) The Theoretical Problems and Practical Obstacles of Urban-rural Development. It seeks for theoretical research and application defects of urban-rural development at home and abroad through the practice analysis of Chengdu test area where the urban-rural development faces many practical problems. Section I, the urban-rural development facing the theoretical problems. With the continuous development of the times, shortcomings and deficiencies appear when apply the study, origin, angle of view of the past theories into developing countries and there are some flaws in its use from a macro point of view. Section II, the reality obstacles faced by urban-rural development. Chengdu test area from the practice, urban-rural development still faces interaction of urban-rural industries, rural land reform, financial investment, employment, social security, public services and many other practical problems. We should start with these so as to improve the overall environment of urban-rural development, to promote coordinated urban-rural development to play a dynamic mechanism, to promote continuous integration of urban-rural areas and to achieve overall development.(9) Construction and Application of Urban-rural Development Evaluation index System---Taking Chengdu as an Example. It proposes evaluation system design principles based on the "Chengdu model" empirical analysis, builds a scientific urban-rural multi-index comprehensive evaluation system, and establishes an evaluation model. It uses evaluation model for static, dynamic analysis and comprehensive evaluation of the level of urban-rural development of Chengdu. Section Ⅰ, Comments on Chengdu Urban and Rural Development Evaluation System. Section Ⅱ, Construction of Urban and Rural Development Evaluation Index System. It builds urban and rural development evaluation system from evaluation index system principles, logic, etc. Section Ⅲ, Urban and Rural Development Evaluation Formula. It lays a solid foundation for understanding and researching the process of urban and rural development.(10) Conclusions and Policy Recommendations. Major conclusions of this thesis are made and it proposes related policy recommendations such as urban-rural development, promoting urban-rural integration, and focuses on the direction and proposes possible future development. Section Ⅰ, the conclusions. It mainly includes the theory connotation of urban-rural development; analysis on China’s urban-rural development context and conditions; exploration of the idea of China’s urban-rural development and path; summary of Chengdu to promote urban-rural development model. Section Ⅱ, deepening the focus of urban-rural development direction. Deepening the urban-rural development will focus on breakthroughs in urban-rural elements of the configuration of the system constraints, the specific directions are: to build a good mechanism of interaction of regional industry; promote and ownership to farmers; build an effective platform for new agricultural financing; establish full coverage, the equalization of urban-rural public service system. Section III, policy recommendations. It includes building a reasonable urban-rural industry structure; raising the level of urbanization; reform of the rural land system; adjusting revenue and expenditure structure; increasing financial support for agriculture; reform of the household registration system and employment system; comprehensive development of rural social undertakings and so on. Section IV, further research issues. It includes long-term mechanism of urban-rural development, technology support system of urban-rural development and experience in urban-rural development promotion of Chengdu City.2. The Main Contribution and Innovation of this ThesisThe intension and extension of urban-rural development are extremely rich. This thesis may inspire on the following aspects, basing on previous research results and an innovative exploration.(1) It enriches the theoretical connotation of the urban-rural development. Through research on scientific content, target system, the overall path, domestic and international experience of the urban-rural development, it explains urban-rural divide and the resulting non-balanced development of urban-rural phenomenon, deepens China’s urban-rural development in the general rule of understanding, enriches the theoretical connotation of the urban-rural development and provides a theoretical and practical basis for narrowing the gap between urban-rural areas and the implementation of integration.(2) It explores the promotion model of urban-rural development. It analyzes the urban-rural developmet of "Chengdu model" and comes to the conclusion that "Chengdu model" bears the value to be popularized. It can provide new development ideas to promote the process of urbanization, narrow the urban-rural gap and has its significance.(3) It analyzes the real obstacles of urban-rural development. It studies the urban-rural development based on the theory that has flaws at home and aboard, taking Chengdu as an example, deepens the analysis of China’s urban-rural development which faces many practical obstacles. It lays a good base for resolving conflicts and speeds up the process of urban-rural development.(4) It establishes the evaluation system of urban-rural development. Based on the "Chengdu model", it initially establishes the evaluation system of the urban-rural development, studies the evaluation methods of the urban-rural development. It provides a theoretical preparation and reference for the establishment of quantitative analysis of China’s urban-rural development.