Calamity and Reform in China: State, Rural Society, and Institutional Change Since the Great Leap Famine

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Summary: excerpt from review in Political Studies
Review: 'Drawing together thoughtful political analysis and careful reading of many Chinese sources. Dali Yang has produced a fascinating study of institutional change in rural China from the late 1950s to the 1990s ... In all, this is a fine example of the way in which the discipline of politics and area studies can be fruitfully brought together to the enrichment of both.' Jane Duckett, Political Studies

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Summary: comparative economic studies review
Review: Calamity and Reform in China presents a fascinating alternative (but not mutually exclusive) explanation of the process by which the revolutionary and highly productive family responsibility system was established in China during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yang notes that explanations centering on the Cultural Revolution and the role of leaders such as Deng Xiaoping are only partial determinants of that great change. His welldocumented thesis points to the impact of the Great Leap Famine on the attitudes and actions of Chinese peasants and their subsequent persistent activities to establish and/or maintain "household contracting" in one form or the other.

Calamity and Reform. . . is an excellent example of integrated social science research. It represents an important reinterpretation of Chinese history and policy, and it adds to our appreciation of the ways in which catastrophic events may play important roles in major social changes. Hence, the book also contributes to the current controversy concerning evolutionary change and path dependency (or hysteresis). Finally, Yang's analysis testifies to the understandable and delightful propensity of individuals (in whatever station of life) to do what they find to be in their particular interests. Calamity and Reform . . . is must reading for all students of the Chinese experience and all students concerned with the efficacy of collectivist economic structures.

Author Affiliation:

Robert M. Fearn

North Carolina State University

Rating:
Summary: Leftists and Communists Do Not Like This Book
Review: That's precisely why this book is important and eye-opening.