Red China's Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development Under the Commune

Joshua Eisenman's book "Red Chinas Green Revolution" challenges the narrative that China's dismantling of the Mao-era rural commune system and return to individual household farming under Deng Xiaoping was a successful turn away from a misguided social experiment. Eisenman argues that the commune modernized agriculture, increased productivity, and spurred an agricultural green revolution that laid the foundation for China's future rapid growth. The commune emerged as a hybrid institution with local control over economic decision-making but almost no say over political ones. It enforced collective isolation and transmitted Mao's collectivist ideology, leading to overwork and underpayment of households. Eisenman's book provides a comprehensive historical and social scientific analysis that challenges our understanding of recent Chinese economic history.

Format: Hardback
Length: 472 pages
Publication date: 24 April 2018
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The dismantling of the Mao-era rural commune system in China and the return to individual household farming under Deng Xiaoping has been widely regarded as a successful shift away from a misguided social experiment and a rejection of the disastrous policies that led to widespread famine. In this revisionist study, Joshua Eisenman challenges this narrative by marshaling previously inaccessible data to demonstrate that the commune modernized agriculture, increased productivity, and spurred an agricultural green revolution that laid the foundation for China's future rapid growth.

The origins, evolution, and downfall of the commune are explored in detail in Red Chinas Green Revolution. After 1970, the commune emerged as a hybrid institution, combining collective and private elements, with significant local control over economic decision-making but limited political influence. It had an integrated agricultural research and extension system that promoted agricultural modernization and collectively owned local enterprises and small factories that spread rural industrialization. The commune also transmitted Mao's collectivist ideology and enforced collective isolation, leading to overwork and underpayment of households.

Eisenman argues that the commune was not eliminated due to its unproductivity but rather because it was politically undesirable. The post-Mao leadership, led by Deng Xiaoping, chose to abandon the commune in order to consolidate their control over China. The study relies on comprehensive national, provincial, and county-level data, as well as interviews with agricultural experts and former commune members, to provide a detailed and systematic analysis of the commune's history and impact.

Red Chinas Green Revolution offers a fresh perspective on China's economic development and challenges the conventional narrative that the commune was a failed experiment. It demonstrates the commune's positive contributions to agriculture, productivity, and rural industrialization and sheds light on the complex political and social factors that led to its demise. The study provides valuable insights into China's economic history and has implications for understanding the country's current economic challenges and opportunities.

Weight: 748g
Dimension: 162 x 236 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231186667