Government of the Peoples Republic of China - Essay Example

An assessment of how majority of the stakeholders (the Chinese living in the countryside) benefit from the economic growth of the PROC is essential to qualify the success of being a world power of the developing country. Therefore, a grasp of the policies is important for policies are statements on how the Chinese leadership grapples issues. Moreover, the timeline of this research is beginning from the crucial years of 1978-1979, the time when Maoist China became Dengist. The establishment of the PROC in 1949 heralded a victory for the proletariat's struggle.

Many in this working class are farmers who were mostly concentrated in rural China. Hence, it is understandable that development of the agriculture sector and the rural areas remains a priority in a largely agricultural country. In the early years of the People's Republic, in which Mao Zedong was the leader, the principle of collective agriculture was the primary basis in settling policy incongruity. "Ideological imperatives ensured that under Mao, the underlying policy dilemma was resolved through the establishment of a collective agriculture" (Ash 2001, p. 91). Utilizing agriculture to gain surplus was an important element to industrialize, indeed, "the e"the essential developmental role of agriculture is to generate a surplus, albeit one that assumes various forms.

A basic imperative is to produce a real surplus: of food, especially for industrial workers and their urban dependants; of raw materials for light industry; and of exports in order to earn foreign exchange" (Ash 2001, p. 77).Labour development was the most evident result and was parallel to agricultural and rural development in Maoist China."In general, the process of agricultural collectivization was instrumental in providing an institutional framework that went some way toward maximizing rural employment opportunities, albeit at the expense of waste, inefficiency, and the concealment of large numbers of surplus farm laborers"(Ash 2001, p. 78). Mao's death in 1976 provided an avenue for the moderates led by Deng Xiaoping.

Modernization of agriculture remained one of the four top agendas, though Deng opted to achieve this by gradually employing an open system. "The ultimate thrust of agricultural policy since 1978 has been to transform China's farm sector from a supply-orientated to a market-responsive, demand-oriented system" (Ash 2001, p. 83). Furthermore, some capitalist aspects were injected to policies in developing agriculture and rural sector under the brand of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." "In ancillary farming activities (research, irrigation, crop spraying, processing) there does exist considerable potential to realize scale economies and secure the benefits of cooperation.

Typically, capitalist agriculture is characterized by the use of small manpower units devoted to the main farm tasks, combined with a significant degree of cooperation in such activities. Farm policy in China during the post-Mao period has increasingly sought to provide institutions that would preserve these valuable aspects of