"High Rent Without Resistance":The Rural Order Under The Dependence Of Property Rights And Social Expectations

From the perspective of origin and formation,property rights are not just a contract between private individuals that the state compulsorily define and implement.It is also a set of relationships and rules that have evolved based on the inherent logic of rural society.The strength of property rights depends on the effectiveness of the state’s protection,while the governance of the country is based on an economic foundation with property rights as the core.The research of this article is based on the question of consciousness,that is,when faced with an exploitative tenancy relationship characterized by a high rent rate,why did the tenant farmers not form an obvious resistance to the landlord?This article adopts the method of empirical research and takes Sanjiaoguan Village in Lezhi County,Sichuan Province as the research object.Under the perspective of grassroots social governance,this paper thoroughly elaborates the internal logic between property rights and governance,and explores the formation of richness based on the possession of property rights.How to realize self-governance and operation of the traditional small rural villages with tenancy relations,analyze its internal governance mechanism and realization conditions,and reveal to a certain extent how the rural society can realize orderly operation and effective governance under the state of weak intervention by the state power.The research of this article is carried out along the main clues of the possession of property rights and the dependence of property rights,social expectations and corresponding governance forms.According to empirical investigations,the possession of property rights in Sanjiaoguan Village was mostly formed by early villagers through land reclamation,inheritance,and trading.The owners of the property rights exercised the use,profit,and disposal based on the property rights of fields,houses,and weir ponds.Rights,and ultimately form individual authority based on the possession of property rights,and on this basis,evolve into the public power of the village society.Groups lacking property rights rely on farmland rents to survive,forming groups that rely on property owners,that is,landlords.Different from the rural tenancy relations in other parts of the country during the same period,Sanjiaoguan Village and its local tenant farmers are facing extremely high rent rates and various forms of rent burdens and rent pressures,including rent and rent.In addition,in the process of agricultural farming and production,tenant farmers still face stricter supervision and control by landlords.Generally speaking,landlords and tenant farmers are in a position of unequal social status,which forms a power squeeze from landlords to tenant farmers.However,in the face of the high rent rate and power squeeze imposed by the landlord class,the tenant farmers did not show obvious resistance to the landlord class.The reason is that the tenant farmers have a property right dependence on the landlord class based on the logic of survival.As well as the social expectations for the future of the individual based on the development logic,the common reasons for the two urge the tenant farmers to accept the existing power structure,thereby realizing the orderly operation of the village society.The basic research conclusions of this thesis are as follows:First,property rights and social expectations are important reasons that urge tenant farmers not to resist the landlord when facing high rents.It is precisely the property rights dependence based on the survival logic and the society based on the development logic.Expectation dilutes the potential factors for tenant farmers to resist the landlord.In addition,the landlord’s moral compensation for the tenant farmers also played a certain role in this process.Second,the structure of property rights affects the governance of rural society.The formation of rural social order is closely related to the structure of property rights.The harmonious and orderly operation of rural society is neither affected by a single subject nor dominated by national authority.The result that a variety of rural social subjects jointly influence and promote.Third,from a more macro level,compared with the independence of Western property rights relative to the state,the property rights system of China’s grassroots society has more obvious dependence.This aspect is manifested in the dependence within the main body of property rights.On the one hand,it is also manifested in the dependence of property rights on state power.Fourth,property rights also have the dual attributes of stability and fragility.The stability of property rights is based on the rules of laws and customs,which brings about a function of property rights as "desired stability." Property owners can make continuous improvements through "desired stability" in order to obtain reasonable returns.But with it is the fragility of property rights.Although property rights are protected by law,if people in the village society do not trust and do not abide by the corresponding rules,property rights will also be threatened.This article’s discussion on the relationship and logic between property rights and governance enlightens us that changes in the form of property rights and their relationships have an overall effect.Many rural regulations and national systems are associated with each other,which often affects the whole body.Therefore,it is establishing a stable boundary.,While forming a stable order,multiple considerations must be taken.It is worth noting that the formation of the village order based on property rights is a relatively closed state of traditional rural society,and each activity subject is dominated by tradition,customs and experience.The social rules prevailing in the village provide a basis for everyone’s actions.And conditions,this kind of activity mechanism has a normative and integrated effect on each subject.With the advent of modern society,although this normative and integrated power is on a downward trend,the background and habitual power are deeply internalized in the subject’s heart,affecting and dominating the subject’s actions.Therefore,In the process of formulating property rights rules,it is necessary for the country to consider the importance of rural habits.