Village governance in North China, 1875-1936 / Huaiyin Li.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Li, Huaiyin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Land value taxation--China--Huolu Xian.

Land value taxation.

Huolu Xian (China)--Politics and government.

Huolu Xian (China).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (339 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is about village governance in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on government archives from Huailu county, Hebei province, it explores local practices and official systems of social control, land taxation, and "self government" at the village level. Its analysis of peasant behaviors bridges the gap between the rational choice and moral economy models by taking into account both material and symbolic dimensions of power and interest in the peasant community. The author's interpretation of village/state relations before 1900 transcends the state and society dichotomy and accentuates the interplay between formal and informal institutions and practices. His account of "state making" after 1900 underscores the continuity of endogenous arrangements in the course of institutional formalization and the interpenetration between official discourse and popular notions in the new process of political legitimization.

Contents:

Introduction

The setting

Cooperation and control in the peasant community : the Xiangdi system

Rules, self interest, and strategies : disputes over the Xiangdi service

Village regulations at work : tax collection

Land and tax administration

Power, discourse, and legitimacy : the village head office in dispute

Cooperation and conflict over village schools

Elite activism

Villages reorganization

Uncovering the "black land".

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-311) and index.

ISBN:

0-8047-6755-6

1-4237-1667-1

OCLC:

614983328