Chinese Rural Public Goods Supply Mechanism: The Transition From Government-led Farmers' Burden Model To A Pluralistic Mode Of Cooperation

The paper analyzes the change of public goods supply models in rural areas of China with a case study of Village Ping, which is one village in central plains in China.Before Reform and Opening up, there are two kinds of public goods supply models in Village Ping, that is, the model of village community assuming costs in the command of government and the model of jointly assuming costs in the command of government. Government plays a dominating role in the two kinds of public goods supply as the decision-makers and organizers. Villagers and villages jointly shoulder the burden of public supply. According to the central characteristics of such two public goods supply models, supply mechanism of public goods during this period can be generalized as supply-driven model.During the period of reform and opening up, there is great change in the public goods supply models in Village Ping. The former model has basically bowed out of the supply stage. Then new models are formed and start to play an important role. Specifically, there are five public goods supply models in Village Ping during the Reform and Opening up: supply model of villagers raising money together, model of village organizations and villagers assuming deliberatively the costs, model of jointly assuming costs under government's predomination, model of external economical entities involved, and model of government, village organizations and villagers assuming costs together. Public goods supply models during this period characterizes increasing suppliers and cooperation between them. So supply mechanism of public goods during this period can be generalized as pluralist cooperation model.After the generalization of supply-driven models during the two periods, the paper gives a deep analysis of reasons. The paper analyzes from three perspectives of international and internal environments in New China, formulation of national development strategy and institution of People's Commune in the first period. In the second period, the paper analyzes the weakening of the state's control of rural areas, heterogeneity of rural areas, and confronted problems by grassroots governments. On the basis of above analyses, the paper concludes that from the founding of New China to Reform and Opening up, the public goods supply model in rural areas of China has transferred from model of villagers assuming costs under government's predomination to model of pluralist cooperation.