The Rural Developmental State: Modernization Campaigns and Peasant Politics in China, Taiwan and South Korea The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Looney, Kristen. 2012. The Rural Developmental State: Citation Modernization Campaigns and Peasant Politics in China, Taiwan and South Korea. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Accessed April 17, 2018 3:48:01 PM EDT Citable Link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9807308 This article was downloaded from Harvard University's DASH Terms of Use repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA (Article begins on next page) 2012 –Kristen Elizabeth Looney All rights reserved. Dissertation Adviser: Professor Elizabeth J. Perry Kristen Elizabeth Looney The Rural Developmental State: Modernization Campaigns and Peasant Politics in China, Taiwan and South Korea Abstract This dissertation analyzes the causes of rural development in East Asia, as well as the relative success or failure of rural development policies among East Asian countries, providing detailed case studies of China, Taiwan, and South Korea. These countries exhibit a range of variation on the dependent variable, rural development, which is defined as improvements in rural living standards, agricultural production and the village environment. Taiwan in the 1950s- 1970s is the most successful case; South Korea in the 1950s-1970s is a less successful case; and China evolves from a failed case during the Maoist period (1949-1976) to a more successful case during the reform period (post-1978), but still one that is less successful than either Taiwan or South Korea. This study expands and challenges the developmental state literature, which, despite its contribution to explaining industrialization in East Asia, generally ignores the role of the state in rural development, fails to account for variation among East Asian countries, and excludes China from the comparative analysis. Based on two years of fieldwork and data culled from interviews, archives, and libraries, this dissertation advances a theory that specifies the varying contributions of land reform, farmers’ organizations, and modernization campaigns in rural development. This study shows that the reversal of urban-biased policies is possible in authoritarian states but does not account for variation in rural development outcomes; that variables such as decentralization and democratic checks on authority are not necessary conditions for rural development; that land reform is less important than previous studies have assumed; and that farmers’ organizations are iii critical to successful rural development. This study also shows that rural modernization campaigns, defined as policies that demand high levels of bureaucratic and popular mobilization to transform “traditional” ways of life in the countryside, have played a central role in East Asian rural development. This finding contradicts the developmental state model’s assumption of technical-rational policymaking, and runs counter to studies that portray state intervention in rural society as predatory or even pathologically destructive. Finally, this dissertation reveals a dynamic process of regional policy learning and modeling that has largely gone undocumented. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: Towards a Theory of East Asian Rural Development……………………………..1-57 Chapter 2: Historical Background—China, Japan and the Role of the US………...……….58-101 Chapter 3: Rural Development in Taiwan, 1950s-1970s………………………………….102-154 Chapter 4: Rural Development in South Korea, 1950s-1970s…………………………….155-203 Chapter 5: Building a New Socialist Countryside in China, 2000s—Origins…….……….204-235 Chapter 6: Building a New Socialist Countryside in China, 2000s—Outcomes………….236-285 Chapter 7: Case Study of Building a New Socialist Countryside in Ganzhou….…………286-333 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………334-341 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………...342-345 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….346-378 v List of Tables and Figures Theory and Background Chapters 1.1: Rural Development Pathways………………………………………………………….........44 1.2 Dependent Variable: Rural Development………………………………………………........53 1.3 Independent Variables………………………………………………………….....................53 1.4: Theoretical Model of East Asian Rural Development……………………………..……55-56 2.1: Extent of Land Reform in Taiwan, 1948-1958……………………………………..……….93 Taiwan Chapter 3.1: Agricultural and Industrial Sector Change in Taiwan, 1952-1981………………………...102 3.2: Impact of Land Reform on Farm Tenancy in Taiwan, 1949-1975………………………...108 3.3: Percent Households Receiving FA Services in Taiwan, 1952-1959…………………....…114 3.4: Community Development Policies in Taiwan, 1955-1978……………………...................121 3.5: Results of the Community Development Campaign in Taiwan, 1969-1981…....................129 3.6: The Farmers’ Association System in Taiwan…………………………………...................134 3.7: Internal Structure of a Township Farmers’ Association in Taiwan……………..................135 3.8: Extent of KMT Representation in FAs (1954 FA Election Results)..…………..................138 South Korea Chapter 4.1: Structural Economic Change in South Korea, 1962-1980………………………................157 4.2: Achievements of the New Village Movement, 1970s………………………..…................193 4.3: Rice Variety and Production Data, 1970-1983…………………………….....…................195 4.4: Annual Expenditures on the New Village Movement, 1970s (in Billions Won)………….198 China Chapters 5.1: Rural Sector Spending as Percentage of Total Government Spending, 1978-2010……….210 vi 5.2: Three Rural Issues Spending, 2002-2011 (Spending in Billion Yuan).…………………...210 5.3: Urban and Rural Incomes, 1990-2010 (Income in Thousands Yuan).…………………....213 5.4: Grain Output, 1990-2010 (Grain Production in Million Tons).…………………..............214 5.5: Grain Exports and Imports, 1978-2008 (Food Trade in Million Tons).…………..............214 5.6: Farmland, 1996-2010 (Farmland in Million Acres)………………………………………215 6.1: Central Fiscal Transfers, 1994-2008 (Transfers in Trillion Yuan)...………………………243 7.1: Map of Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province…………………………………………………...289 7.2: Map of Fieldwork Sites in Ganzhou………………………………………….……………289 7.3: Ganzhou City Statistics, 2003 and 2008……………………………………………...……290 7.4: Statistics for Five Counties in Ganzhou, 2008…………………………………….………291 7.5: 2010 Anyuan County Subsidies for Village Renovation…………………………..………310 7.6: Post-NSC Village Structure in Ganzhou………………………………………..…………325 Appendices 1: National Program Indicators for Building a New Socialist Countryside …....................342-343 2: National Cadre Evaluation Standards for Building a New Socialist Countryside……...344-345 vii Acknowledgments I want to thank my dissertation committee for the opportunity to work with them and for all of the help they have given me. My advisor, Elizabeth Perry, provided valuable insights and suggestions at each stage of my graduate school career. Roderick MacFarquhar generously shared with me his unparalleled knowledge of the Maoist period. Timothy Colton introduced me to the classic works in comparative politics and helped me understand the China case from a broader perspective. Katharine Moon, in addition to helping me understand Korea, has mentored me since I was an undergraduate at Wellesley College. This project would not have been possible without them. I would also like to thank Iain Johnston, Steven Levitsky, Robert Bates, Nahomi Ichino, Peter Hall, Tony Saich, Andrew Walder, Jean Oi, and Sebastian Heilmann for providing excellent instruction and advice during my graduate studies. I am grateful to the Harvard- Yenching library staff for their assistance, as well as Nancy Hearst of the Fairbank Center who works tirelessly to support the research of established scholars and graduate students alike. My last two years of graduate school were spent at Columbia University, where I was welcomed by the political science faculty and made to feel at home by the staff at the C.V. Starr East Asian library. Thom Wall deserves special thanks for, among other things, helping me work out the logistics of being away from Harvard for so many years. As a perpetual student of East Asian languages, I am also grateful to Sang-suk Oh, Mi-hyun Kim and Kyung-ok Joo of the Harvard Korean language program. In addition, I wish to thank my mentors, teachers and classmates from Wellesley, especially Bill Joseph, Sherry Mou, Ann Huss, Rachel Stern, Wendy Leutert and Sara Newland for their ongoing support and encouragement. Among my graduate school peers, I am grateful to Christopher Rhodes, Claire Schwartz viii Litwin, Janet Lewis, Sarah Shehabuddin, Jennifer Bachner, Elena Llaudet, Omar Wasow, Josh Cherniss, Wonwoo Yi, Javier Sagretti, Xiaojun Yan, Andy Harris, Kyle Jaros and so many others for their help and friendship over the years. I am also extremely lucky to have Meg Rithmire, Didi Kuo, and Ben Goodrich in my life. Being at Harvard with friends who knew me long before graduate school kept me grounded and lifted my spirits when things felt impossible. I am especially grateful to Meg, who helped me with every challenge I faced. I also want to thank the host institutions that supported me: the Korean Language Institute and the Department of Political Science at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea; the IUP Chinese language center