The Emergence And Impacts Of ’Rural Governance Polity’ In The Post Tax Period: A Case Study Of One Village In Eastern China

This dissertation, based on the case study of one village named Qiu in EasternChina in the post tax period, explains how the foundations of the authority andacceptability of cadre governance have transformed after the abolishment of agriculturaltax, in the power relation game among the grass-root regimes in villages and towns, thevillage cadres (or village officials), and the villagers. This transition of rural primarypolity, which can be investigated in the level of state and society relations, is deemed toresult from the biased operation of recent rural development policies (eg. the adjustmentof industrial structures in agriculture, the local project management, the land acquisition,the subsidy to superior crop seeds etc.) and the distortion development of ruralcommunities. It has led to the emergence of the ‘rural governance polity’, and resultedin multiple social implications:1. the rise of new types of poverty in rural communities;2. the impairment of the authority and acceptance of village cadres, which wouldnegatively influence the stability of rural society;3. the self identity crisis of villagersand the gradual decline of community culture. Consequently, the value principle ofrecent rural development policies, which refers to the ideology and construct ofdevelopmentalism and is relied on by the cadre governance in the post tax period, needsto be re-evaluated. And the developmental social policy and the construct ofcommunities’ capacity centred on endogenous development could be proposed to copewith the emergence and influences of ‘rural governance polity’, which is supposed tosignificantly contribute to the sustainable development of rural communities and theconstruction of new socialist rural area in China.