Land Circulation and Peasants' Class Differentiation: Class Differentiation

In the classical theory of Marxism, the status of land possession is an important basis for class and stratum differentiation. In A.D. 1930, chen hansheng and others scientifically proved that rural class relations were dominated by feudal factors, and rural society was semi-colonial and semi-feudal. During the revolutionary period, Mao Zedong also regarded the status of land possession as an important basis for class and stratum differentiation, which played a key role in fully understanding the class status of China at that time and demonstrating the necessity of agrarian revolution. After the land reform in New China, the influence of land on the differentiation of rural class structure is no longer significant, so the discussion of rural class structure by scholars is mainly based on occupational differentiation (such as Lu). After the abolition of agricultural tax, agricultural farming has gained considerable benefits, and the important influence of land circulation on rural social stratification and peasant stratum differentiation has once again become prominent.

First, the complex reality of land circulation.

Since the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, under the premise of stabilizing the rural land in contract relationship, the policies of the party and the state have always allowed and encouraged the transfer of land use rights during the contract period. The central government has always hoped to realize the transfer of land contractual management rights in accordance with the principle of voluntary compensation according to law, thus effectively protecting farmers' rights and interests. However, the reality is complicated. The motives, purposes and specific ways of farmers' land transfer in different periods are different, and the specific conditions in different rural areas are also different. For example, the land circulation in Jingshan, Hubei Province has roughly gone through three stages:

In the first stage, from the1980s, some farmers moved their land and took the initiative to work and do business in cities. Compared with the central and western rural areas, the rural market economy in Jingshan started earlier, so the land transfer also happened earlier.

In the second stage, from the end of 1980, due to the increasing burden on farmers, many farmers were overwhelmed and had to transfer or give up their land and were forced to work in cities. Abandoned land is circulated under the organization of village collectives. This situation was very common during the period of 1990 s to the abolition of agricultural tax in 2004.

In the third stage, after the agricultural tax was abolished in 2004, the state not only stopped charging farmers any fees, but also distributed various subsidies to farmers. Farming is becoming more and more profitable, the previously abandoned land suddenly became popular, and the land circulation pattern and specific situation have also changed greatly. At this time, on the one hand, farmers' willingness to transfer land is generally reduced, and the proportion of land transfer is reduced; On the other hand, some farmers have to transfer their land because of too little land and uneconomical farming.

Due to different situations, farmers have different realistic forms of land circulation, including three situations:

1. Active long-term land transfer

This mainly means that farmers give up the contracted land in the village after they establish themselves in the town, or predict in advance that they can establish themselves in the town and actively transfer the contracted land. This situation existed from the 1980 s until the abolition of agricultural tax. For example, in Gong Village, Cao Town, Jingshan, among the 60 villagers who have transferred land in a large area, 13 households belong to this situation. When farmers take the initiative to transfer land for a long time, the transferee will certainly get the land for a long time as expected.

2. Passive long-term transfer of land

From the late11980 s to the tax and fee reform in 2003, the burden on farmers became heavier and heavier, but the price of grain was still very low, farmers did not make money in farming, and many farmers transferred their land. This kind of circulation is not only free, but also sometimes gives a "subsidy", reaching an acre of 300 yuan at the peak. Because land bears all kinds of taxes and fees, land abandonment means that taxes and fees are nowhere to be found, grass-roots governments are not allowed to abandon land, and farmers have to pay taxes and fees even if they don't farm. This is what Li Changping described as "farmers can't farm without thinking". In this case, some farmers transfer their houses and land to immigrants from other mountainous areas; Some farmers try their best to move their household registration away, or even become "black"; In addition, more farmers simply put down their minds, regardless of whether they ask or not, throw away their land and go out to work and do business, so there has been a large area of land abandonment. When some villagers went out, although they told their neighbors to farm, the land changed hands or was abandoned in a short time. Rural organizations can no longer expect to collect taxes if they give up their land and go out to work and do business. Therefore, they have to find various ways to transfer the abandoned land.

The methods that can be thought of at the rural level include dicing contracting, low-cost contracting, and changing land use. Scribing contract refers to the village collective subdividing the fields to solve the problems of farming and irrigation, and concentrating the fields of the same farmer together, which is convenient for building small water conservancy facilities such as weitang and small machines, and can slightly improve the enthusiasm of farmers to take over the contracted land. Low-cost contracting means that village collectives transfer abandoned land at a price lower than the conventional tax burden. In this case, village cadres often hold the attitude that "the tax that can get a penny is one point, and something is better than nothing". Changing land use is to attract villagers to contract by changing the use of cultivated land. Tian Gang can contract to plant fast-growing poplars and dig fish ponds in low-lying areas to raise fish. In short, under the leadership of the village collective and the efforts of the village cadres, the abandoned farmers turned out of the land and other farmers obtained the land.

1997, the first round of land contracting expired, and the central government asked the provinces to carry out the second round of land contracting. Due to the heavy burden of farming taxes and fees, farmers have no enthusiasm for the second round of contracting. As a result, many local cadres, including Jingshan, Hubei, had to follow suit and let the second round of contracting go through the motions. After the abolition of agricultural tax in 2004, farming was profitable, and many villagers returned to their villages and had conflicts with the villagers who cultivated land in their villages. Farmers returning to villages have the right to contract agricultural land in law, but in the hands of village farmers, there are contracts signed with village committees. Faced with uncompromising and reasonable contradictory parties, rural cadres can't think of effective methods. In this case, on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2004, Hubei Province issued the policy document "Several Opinions on Improving the Extension of the Second Round of Rural Land Contract", "Confirming Rural Land". Based on the land occupation situation at that time, the document adopted flexible measures, which made it possible to compromise and solve land disputes without seriously violating the law.

In practice, the jingshan county Township Government's handling method is to confirm the right on the basis of the land occupation at that time, but it requires large farmers to set aside a small amount of land and give 2 mu of grain ration fields to each household who cancels the pre-tax abandonment of agriculture. At that time, the contradiction was fierce, and the town cadres were stationed in the village every day to deal with the land problem. Even so, in 2005, there were still 29 groups of 83 people petitioning in Cao Zhen. So far, some villagers who have obtained land rights have not actually obtained land. In this way, in 2005, the villagers who did not return to the village in time were forced to leave all their land for a long time, and the villagers who returned to the village in time were also forced to leave most of their land for a long time (jingshan county has 2 mu of land per capita, and the average household is about 10 mu). Of the 60 villagers who transferred land on a large scale in Gongcun, 47 belong to this situation; Twenty-four of them are now "landless peasants" in non-suburban villages, and three of them have lost the qualification of "confirming the right" and become "landless peasants" because they sold their houses and land to immigrants; The other 23 villagers only have two acres of grain fields. Correspondingly, farmers who expropriated land at that time unexpectedly obtained long-term land contracting rights due to changes in policies and situations.

3. Short-term land transfer

This kind of land circulation has always been very common. The reason why the parties choose short-term land transfer is often because they have long-term expectations for land, but have no long-term expectations for other ways of making a living, or feel unsafe. Most of the current land transfer in Jingshan rural areas is short-term land transfer, and most of them only got 2 mu of grain ration fields in 2005. Most of these farmers who took their families out to work went out before the agricultural tax was abolished, so they passively transferred land. Now a large part of them have more land demand, so they will not transfer land for a long time, but they may return to their villages to farm. Correspondingly, the transferee farmers of land transfer obtained the land contracting right in a short time.