Agrarian Radicalism in China, 1968-1981 / David Zweig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zweig, David, author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian Series

Harvard East Asian Series ; 102

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rural development--China.

Rural development.

Radicalism--China.

Radicalism.

Communism and agriculture--China.

Communism and agriculture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (283 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

During and after the Cultural Revolution, radical leaders in the Chinese Communist Party tried to mobilize rural society for socioeconomic and political changes and move rural China to even higher stages of collectivism. David Zweig argues that because advocates of agrarian radicalism formed a minority group within China's central leadership, they acted in opposition to the dominant moderate forces and resorted to alternative strategies to mobilize support for their unofficial policies. The limited institutionalization of the system allowed the radicals to promote their principles through "policy winds," speeches generated by newspaper articles, networks of political allies, and organized visits; they also linked their policies to ongoing political and economic campaigns. In spite of this radical ideology and frequent upheavals in the countryside, Zweig finds that Chinese peasants had no ideological affinity for Mao's theory of the continuing revolution and reacted to each policy change on the basis of how it affected their personal, family, or collective interests. Despite intense propaganda, cadres adjusted the impact of these radical policies so that the peasants' conservative mindset, entrepreneurial spirit, and desire to improve their own lot remained intact. Zweig examines the local realities of the radicals' program by describing the results of specific policies; he discriminates among the responses of officials at different bureaucratic levels, peasants of varying income levels and family structures, and villages with specific geographic and socioeconomic characteristics. He draws on his own field research in Chinese villages and interviews with Chinese college students and their friends who had lived in the countryside and emigrès in Hong Kong who had lived and worked in rural China.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

TABLES

FIGURES

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: DILEMMAS OF THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE

1. AGRARIAN RADICALISM DEFINED: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND DEVELOPMENTAL STRATEGIES

2. POLICY WINDS AND AGRARIAN RADICALISM

3. PERIODIZATION OF AGRARIAN RADICALISM

4. THE LOCAL RESPONSE

5. BRIGADES AND HIGHER STAGES OF SOCIALISM

6. RESTRICTING PRIVATE PLOTS

7. RESOURCE EXPROPRIATION AND EQUALIZATION

8. THE MAKING OF A NEW RURAL ORDER

CONCLUSION: THE FAILURE OF AGRARIAN RADICALISM

ABBREVIATIONS. APPENDIX. NOTES. BIBLIOGRAPHY. INDEX

ABBREVIATIONS

APPENDIX TYPES OF PRIVATE PLOTS

NOTES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Backmatter

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-674-43496-X

OCLC:

1024015651