Chen Ming of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences | the general logic of rural modernization

Rural revitalization is essentially a modernization problem, and the rural modernization of late-developing countries is the "ultimate problem" of world modernization. On the issue of rural modernization, three main cognitive paradigms have been formed in academic history, such as the theory of factor structure change, the theory of the centrality of human-land relations, and the interaction theory of institutional structure. Each country has its own "institutional stock", so it is bound to face a series of specific political and economic problems in the process of modernization. To understand the political and economic logic of China's rural modernization, it is necessary to clarify the general logic, door conditions and political and economic constraints of rural modernization on the basis of clarifying the relevant theoretical understanding.

Completing the modern transformation of the traditional countryside usually goes through the following logical sequence:

1. The origin and diffusion of industrialized urbanization. Subject to constraints such as the homogenization of the division of labor and the narrowness of the market, most rural areas are actually unable to start the modernization process independently. Rural modernization can only be achieved after the start of industrialization and urbanization, by introducing modern production factors and production methods into traditional villages. Therefore, what determines whether a country's rural modernization can be realized and how fast or slow it is not the matrix conditions of traditional villages, but the level of industrialization and urbanization development.

2. Agricultural Revolution and Agricultural Modernization. There have been three large-scale agricultural revolutions in world history: the first is the classical agricultural revolution in England in the 18th century; the second is the global "green revolution" in the middle of the 20th century; and the third is the agricultural industrial revolution after China's reform and opening up in the 1980s. China's agricultural industrial revolution can be divided into two stages: one is the explosive growth of agriculture brought about by the increase in investment and institutional innovation after rural reform; the other is the transformation from traditional land-intensive agriculture to capital-intensive agriculture driven by the food consumption revolution since this century, which Huang Zongzhi called the "hidden agricultural revolution". The agricultural revolution will ultimately lead to the modernization of agriculture, or to put it more simply - "agricultural industrialization". This is not a simple mechanization, informatization or even intelligent problem, but to achieve a series of basic production functions in the national economy, or the combination of production factors, and continuous breakthrough changes from low to high.

3. The development economics process of urban and rural transformation. Under ideal conditions, with the advancement of agricultural modernization, it will inevitably bring about the spiral development of urban-rural interaction, and eventually realize the structural transformation of urban and rural areas. This process mainly includes the following aspects: (1) the introduction of modern factors into agriculture, the simultaneous expansion of agricultural labor productivity and production scale; (2) the transfer of agricultural surplus labor to the industrial sector, the transfer of rural population to the city; (3) the absolute level of agricultural added value has risen, but its relative share of GDP has been declining; (4) the consumption structure and food structure have been upgraded, and the overall industrial division of labor has accelerated and deepened; (5) professional farmers have risen, and farmers have entered the ranks of the middle class; (6) the marginal welfare output of urban and rural factors is basically the same The economic and social development of urban and rural areas tends to be balanced.

4. Generalized division of labor and extended order. For a long time, modernization was equated with industrialization, ignoring the impact of the division of labor and its extended order on the transformation process. In fact, while bringing about economic modernization, the division of labor will also form an extended order in the social field through ultra-marginal penetration, which in turn will bring about specialization and specialization in different fields such as politics, economy, and law. At a deeper level, the transformation of rural modernization is not only a process of deepening the division of labor in the agricultural industry and the continuous renewal and iteration of modern elements, but also a process in which traditional small farmers grow out of dependency relationships into modern farmers and a professional rural society is gradually formed. The former can be understood as economic transformation, the latter can be understood as social transformation, and the two transformation processes are mutually superficial and endogenous.

[This article is excerpted from Chen Ming, "Introduction to the Political Economy of China's Rural Modernization", Academic Monthly, No. 9, 2021.] The author Chen Ming is an associate researcher at the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, whose main research areas are rural governance, land system, and rural reform, and has published "On Land Politics" and "Facing China's Seed Problems" (editor-in-chief). ]