Research On The Incompleteness Of Peasantry Differentiation And The Influence On The Process Of Urbanization In China

Since the market economy caused rapid expanding of the industrial department in China from the late 1970s, plenty of rural labor force turned to the secondary industry and tertiary industry. Rapid and lasting professional differentiation happened in the traditional peasantry, and brought about income differentiation. Plenty of agricultural labor force transformed to non-agricultural labor force and moved from rural areas to urban areas. There are more than 100 million peasants living and working in the urban areas and peasants of the same number are working in the town and township enterprises, relying on their wages. In the past 30 years, the constant promotion of market-oriented reform and the process of industrialization brought forth all kinds of groups such as workers, traders and enterprisers out of the peasantry in China. However, in the course of transforming into other states, these groups also keep the identity of peasant and keep contact with the agricultural production and villages. The incompleteness is the essential feature of peasantry differentiation in China.The incompleteness of peasantry differentiation has negative effects on both the level of urbanization and the way of urbanization in China. Millions of migrant peasants are on the move between the rural areas and urban areas each year but not perpetual migration of population. There is a gap between the rate of urbanization in statistics and the one in reality. As for the migrant peasants, where to work and where to settle are different questions, which caused some big cities being overload with population. It will not only bring about huge pressure on management but also aggravate difficulty of settlement for the migrant peasants. The research tries to use the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation as a key and analyze its characteristics and reasons. And then it tries to show how the incompleteness affects the process of urbanization. In the end, the research points out that in order to promote the process of urbanization, we should take measures to guide the peasantry differentiation and break the condition of’amphibious’.The article concludes 4 parts. The part 1 consists of chapter 1 and chapter 2, and is about the main concepts, basic theories and overviews of research on this topic. In chapter 1, the author summarized and reviewed related research on the peasantry differentiation, the peasantry differentiation in China and its influence on urbanization, and then expounded the concepts of peasantry, peasantry differentiation and urbanization. The chapter 2 used related theories in political economics, development economics and sociology as reference, and attained the model of peasantry differentiation including the forms, reasons and the tendency. The author then analyzed the mechanism of the peasantry differentiation’s effect on the process of urbanization from the angle of both theory and historical experience.The part 2 is the main section of the article, including chapter 3, chapter 4 and chapter 5. The author described the features and reasons of peasantry differentiation, at the basement of which, its effects on both the level of urbanization and the way of urbanization in China were discussed. The chapter 3 is about the current features and reasons of peasantry differentiation. The peasantry differentiation in China started from the involvement of traditional China with the whole capitalism economy in modern time. After 1949, China set up the planned economy and began the process of industrialization. Through a series of institutions like the dual household register institution, the peasants were restricted to be a group of single identity, and which was a kind of deliberate control on peasantry differentiation in fact. Until the late of 1970s, the reform of rural economy system brought with rapid development of town and township enterprises, and the reform of urban economy system and the opening up of coastal areas brought with the blooming of export-oriented manufacturing industry. The prosperity of non-agriculture sector provided the peasants with plenty of jobs, and so the surplus labor force in agriculture was released. Until then the scale and degree of peasantry differentiation was enough to be paid attention to. With the course of reform and opening up, the degree of peasantry differentiation was reinforced. Firstly, more and more rural labor force changed to be non-agricultural labor force and the degree of professional differentiation strengthened. Secondly, the income gap of peasants expanded. Thirdly, the peasants’life style is transforming from tradition to modern. However, the groups coming from the traditional peasantry have not arrived at a stable and mature stage and suggest a kind of incompleteness, which was elaborated further from three aspects. In the second section of chapter 3, the author analyzed what caused the peasantry differentiation and especially what caused the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation. The course of peasantry differentiation in China follows the law of peasantry differentiation in modernization and simultaneously affected by the specific historical stage and the particular situation of China, which was pushed by several different factors. Generally speaking, the scale and degree of peasantry differentiation in China is accommodative to the degree of the whole economy reform.The chapter 4 discussed that how the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation affect the level of urbanization. The condition of high level of industrialization with low level of urbanization kept a long time before the reform and opening up. After then China experienced a stage of fastest economic development and fastest industrialization and urbanization. The gap between industrialization and urbanization was becoming little and little. But it’s not enough. The rate of urbanization reached 45.68% in 2008. Within the 607 million urban residents, there are about 200 million workers, traders and enterprisers coming from the traditional peasantry just now, who are standing in an unsteady condition between agriculture and non-agriculture, between rural areas and urban areas. The first section discussed the way of the incompleteness affecting on the level of urbanization. Firstly, the’amphibious’living condition of the migrant peasants is harmful to the raise of rate of urbanization. Secondly, the borderline condition of migrant peasant workers will directly block their transformation from peasants to citizens. The functioning way is affected by three factors, which are institutions aimed at migrant peasants by the city government, the development level of rural areas and the stratum consciousness of migrant peasants. These factors were discussed in the second section. The third section attained the conclusion that the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation in China prevented the raise of level of urbanization.The chapter 5 discussed the impact of the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation on the way of urbanization. Because of the migrant peasants’condition of ’amphibious’, different scales of cities including metropolis, megacity, medium cities and small cities grew more or less, which have their own specific functions. The behaviors of the migrant peasants were affected by original functions of these cities, and affected their functions in turn, which would have important impact on the whole structure of urban function. And the short-term across-region migration of peasants changed how cities are distributed and so changed their space structure. Firstly, the separation of working goal and settling goal caused some big cities being overload with population. Secondly, the migrant peasants’condition of’amphibious’caused small cities and towns hard to develop healthily and the urbanization of land is much faster than the urbanization of population. The process is affected by the selective institutions aimed at migrant peasants by the government of different scales of cities and the situation of regional development. The second section discussed how the two factors function. The third section is the conclusion. Because of the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation, which means that the rural labor force can’t finish the transformation from agriculture to non-agriculture and the transformation from rural areas to urban areas, the urban system with different scales of cities developing harmoniously can’t form successfully.In the part 3, that is the chapter 6 including three sections, the author attained the conclusion that since the incompleteness of peasantry differentiation blocked the promotion of urbanization, we should guide the process to resolve the problem. The second section put forward the directional proposal:on one hand, we should urge the further professional differentiation of peasants actively and receive these new urban residents step by step; on the other hand, we should construct the quitting mechanism of the peasants which will help forward qualified ones get out of agriculture and rural areas. Only when some peasants quit the rural areas, it is possible that agricultural modernization would come true. The two aspects affect each other and push forward each other. And we should pay more attention to the former and assist with the latter. In the third section, the author put forward specific suggestions:to deepen reform of the residence registration system, to build an unified employment system, to build modern social security system, to build education system equal to everyone, to promote reform of the rural land system and to accelerate the transformation of government functions aiming at public service.The part 4 is the epilogue, including chapter 7. The author talked about the tendency of peasantry differentiation in China and put forward several particularly important points. In the process of a country transforming from an agricultural society to an industrial one, the traditional peasantry is bound to begin the differentiation, and transform to be other social strata such as workers, managers, enterprisers and modern farmers gradually, which is their historical result. The traditional peasantry would die, and the modern workers would be born.