Challenges Facing Chinese Political Development. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. vii, 240 pp. (Tables, graphs.) US$65.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-7391-7009-0.
This engaging collection of essays by Scandinavian and Chinese scholars explores new organizational initiatives conditioned by marketization, privatization and migration. Contributors examine “top-down” of state authorities to orchestrate institutional change, as well as grass-roots institution-building by rural actors. The first part, “Political Framework, Discourses, and Experiments,” looks critically at how Chinese elites have construed rural organizations as fundamentally problematic for social and political development, and consequently have envisioned new institutions to address the perceived dysfunctional character of rural communities. The second half of the book, “Local Actors and Practices,” explores more specifically contextualized organizational initiatives “from below.”
In part 1, Stig Thøgersen offers a discursive analysis of alternative remedies prescribed for China’s rural malaise. Against the backdrop of the “Building a New Socialist Countryside” policy initiative, he juxtaposes the arguments of two prominent intellectuals: one advocating establishment of independent “peasant associations” as political interest organizations, the other calling for a new rural reconstruction program focused on a spiritual revival of social and cultural associations. In a somewhat similar vein, Christian Gobel addresses official prescriptions for an ideal countryside and the proper relationships between “peasants,” local cadres, and central authorities. He argues that unfavourable policy outcomes are rarely addressed by substantive modifications in policy, but rather by alterations in rhetorical propaganda: the “strength through unity” narrative tempered by motifs of “rule by division” that portray rural residents and the central government allied against predations of corrupt local cadres. Unn Malfrid Rolandsen considers the direct deployment of urban cadres to rural areas as educated specialists and role models: tasked with fostering new local understandings of how village society ought to be organized and with eradicating ideas and practices party-state authorities deem undesirable. She interprets the development initiatives of such “sent-down cadres” as conscious efforts to create ideal “civilized” village communities conducive to the construction of a “socialist modernity.” Xu Yong and Ma Hua discuss their experience with three rural reconstruction experiments: introducing village electoral institutions, establishing cooperative organizations, and developing expressive and participatory skills among “peasants.” They conclude that the construction of a modern democratic state can only be successful if it is predicated upon human development, respects subjective mentalities, builds upon local initiatives, and fosters the skills and competency of the rural populace. Liu Yiqiang concludes the first part of the book with an overview of China’s dystopian communities: “failed villages” where social order and cohesion have broken down and development has lagged. He identifies a number of problems exhibited by such communities, which he attributes to the “rapid process of modernization” (112).
Part 2 presents more detailed and nuanced case studies of rural organizational initiatives. Mette Halskov Hansen describes how rural boarding schools condition students to abide by authoritarian rule while becoming capable, assertive and innovative participants in a market economy. She argues that the student cadre system, official student associations, and informal spontaneous student networks represent some of the “most important examples in contemporary China of how young people are trained to organize and be organized” (137). Mikkel Bunkenborg explores organizational responses to the dysfunctional rural health-care system, suggesting that the rise of folk healing, spirit mediums, and religious movements spurred the government to launch a new medical insurance scheme in an effort to regain some purchase over rural health care through indirect control. Marina Svensson cautions against viewing lineage revitalization as inherently antithetical to official ideology or threatening to social stability. She describes how ancestral organizations have embraced cultural heritage as an entrepreneurial venture, and how party-state authorities co-opt and appropriate lineage practices for nationalistic patriotic narratives. Cuiming Pang examines a rural migrant cyber-community to illustrate how the Internet may be used to construct collective memory of native place, articulate agency, and express power. She focuses on the techniques used to organize offline public activities, describing how organizers work with authorities rather than trying to evade government controls. The innovative strategies of this marginalized population of rural migrants enable them to create new opportunities by manipulating official institutions to their own advantage. Ane Bislev examines microcredit development programs focused on promoting women’s empowerment, community development, and social cohesion. She highlights the critical interstitial role of local staff as well as the difficulties external actors encounter in attempting to engage in local social structures, particularly the need to balance local sympathies with outside directives. Finally, Jørgen Delman and Yang Minghong use the infamous melamine-tainted milk scandal of 2008 to look critically at the organizational function of large agribusiness in control of extensive value chains that link agricultural producers with consumer markets. They argue that such “dragon head enterprises” are often co-opted by government authorities for purposes of political, economic and social integration. Delman and Yang attribute the melamine scandal to a “lack-of-fit” in the interests of private and public stakeholders. Local producers and middlemen were treated dismissively, denied shareholding rights, and prohibited from forming self-organized cooperatives. Consequently, they failed to become responsible stakeholders in a vertically integrated value chain, opting instead to cope with market stress by adulterating milk.
Loosely framed, theoretically, around the notion of “individualization,” this volume addresses the “re-imbedding” or reintegration of individuals in new collectivities. This common theme could be more fully developed in some chapters, which reveal an uneven quality to the collection. It is also odd to see China’s farmers of the twenty-first century still referred to as “peasants.” Nevertheless, the essays presented here demonstrate quite effectively that there are many different stakeholders with an interest in rural China, and a diverse array of ideas about how rural communities ought to be organized. This informative collection offers thoughtful insight on contemporary development trends and will be of interest to many scholars concerned with the rhetoric, and dynamics, of new organizational forms in the Chinese countryside.
Gregory A. Ruf
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, USA
pp. 321-323