Research on the Construction of Grassroots Rural Governance in the Early Years of the Revolution and Rural Reconstruction: 1949-1957, with Liling County, Hunan Province as a Case Study

Author: Chen Yiyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: During the Republican era, the ruling party of Liling faced two major challenges: one was to alleviate the financial pressure brought by long-term 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 party attempted to use two channels. On the institutional level, it established district organizations and village 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 village systems. The ruling party struggled with the unresolved tension between the baoguo system and village 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 mobilize and rebuild rural society to fully engage farmers. Initially, movements such as grain collection for military support, the double reduction and anti-bullying campaign, and rent reduction and deposit refunds broke the traditional power structures in the old villages, leading to the decline of the baoguo system. Later, the party carried out democratic governance and village-based administration. As a result, the impoverished and low-income peasants at the bottom of society were mobilized, the old clan and family social and cultural networks in rural society were dismantled, and state power was decentralized to the countryside.
"Organizing" aimed to guide and organize farmers to take the socialist path through mutual assistance and cooperation. In the process of developing mutual assistance movements, the state actually faced the issue of how to align upper-level policies with grassroots realities. The mutual assistance movement in Liling County clearly and specifically reflected the different perspectives of local landlords and grassroots cadres and farmers on the decentralization of state power. From its actual development, the state gradually gained leadership through channels such as the expansion of party membership, the monitoring of branch committees, and grassroots cadre work teams in terms of the advantages of promotional discourse, the selection of mutual assistance group leaders, the functional positioning of mutual assistance organizations, and the development direction of the mutual assistance movement.