Research on the Construction of Grassroots Governments in Rural Areas during the Early Years of the PRC (1949-1957: A Case Study of Liling County, Hunan Province)

Author: Chen Yiyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: During the Republican era, the Guomindan regime in Liling faced two major challenges: one was to alleviate the financial pressure brought by prolonged warlord conflicts, and the other was to deal with the rise of the Communist Soviet movement in the 1920s. To achieve the decentralization of state power, the Guomindan attempted to use two channels. On the institutional level, it established district organizations and township systems. At the same time, to strengthen control over rural grassroots levels, it created various anti-bandit organizations. Groups like the Qingxiang teams, tuanfang teams, security battalions, watch teams, and regular guard teams all aimed to further consolidate grassroots control based on the district and township systems. The Guomindan struggled with the unresolved tension between the baoguo system and rural self-governance. After Liling's peaceful liberation in 1949, the Communist Party of China, as the leader and organizer of the new regime, needed to carry out mobilization and reconstruction of the rural society to fully mobilize the peasants. Initially, through campaigns like grain collection for military support, the double reduction and anti-bullying movement, and rent reduction and deposit return, the traditional power structures in the old rural society were dismantled, and the baoguo system declined. Later, the party carried out democratic governance and township establishment. As a result, the impoverished and tenant farmers at the bottom of society were mobilized, the old clan and family social and cultural networks in rural society were disintegrated, and state power was decentralized to the countryside. "Organization" aimed to guide and organize farmers to take the socialist path through mutual aid and cooperation. In the process of mutual aid development, the state actually faced the issue of how to align upper-level policies with grassroots realities. Liling County's mutual aid movement clearly and specifically demonstrated the different perspectives of local landlords and grassroots cadres and peasants on the decentralization of state power. From its actual development, the state gradually gained leadership through channels such as the expansion of the number of party members, the monitoring of party branches, and grassroots cadre work teams in terms of the advantages of promotional discourse, the selection of mutual aid group leaders, the functional positioning of mutual aid organizations, and the development direction of the mutual aid movement.