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Politically directed accumulation in rural China: The making of the agrarian capitalist class and the new agrarian question of capital
Author(s) -
Zhang Qian Forrest,
Zeng Hongping
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/joac.12435
Subject(s) - agrarian society , economic system , capital (architecture) , agrarian system , capital accumulation , politics , state (computer science) , political economy , capitalization , economics , class conflict , china , agriculture , market economy , political science , human capital , geography , law , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , algorithm , computer science
We study the formation of the agrarian capitalist class in the pig farming sector in a Chinese county. We propose a new framework for analyzing the dynamics of accumulation and class formation in agriculture that focuses on the role of the state and public resources. In what we call “politically directed accumulation,” local states in China, driven by a political logic of maximizing fiscal resources and improving performance record, select actors who either have accumulated non‐agrarian capital or possess political capital to serve as their agents ( political selection ) and then capitalize their farming operations by transferring to them public resources ( political capitalization ), creating a new agrarian capitalist class. The accumulation in this case happens largely without the dispossession of other agricultural producers but instead is assisted by the state's mobilization of public resources. This study advances the call for the renewal of the agrarian question of capital and proposes that the role of the state is now the most important factor in creating different paths of agrarian transition.