Contract Era: A Study on the Modernization of Social Relationships in Chinese Society

Author: Li Liu Lan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: What is the current era coordinate of the evolution of China's social structure? Starting with an analysis of rural reforms, the author observes that Chinese social relationships are entering a contractual process. They extend the starting point of social progress in Henry Maine's 19th-century thesis "From Status to Contract" from "status" to "kinship," arguing that the status-based society is merely a transitional period where "kinship" and "contract" rise and fall. Using this as the overall perspective, the author employs knowledge beams from multiple disciplines—such as philosophy, economics, political science, law, history, ethics, anthropology, and sociology—to focus on the evolution of land relations, capital relations, political relations, and the transformation of ideological and cultural forms in China's modernization process. Additionally, they propose new interpretations for some controversial and diversely viewed issues, such as ownership, property rights, the legal basis for state regulation of distribution, the labor theory of value, corruption of public power, party politics, the people-centered and democratic issues, the problems of rule by man, virtue, and law, the nature of human good and evil, belief, and the future direction of human society.