Social Sciences in China

Vol. 35, No. 3, 2014

China’s Household Tradition and Its Rural Development Path: With

Reference to Traditional Russian and Indian Village Communities

(Abstract)

Xu Yong

Sources of tradition that produce a lasting influence upon modern society are fundamental to that society’s development. Among Eastern sources of tradition, the village systems of Russia and India are very unlike the Chinese household system, a system that served as the foundation for China’s unique path of rural development. This system includes the following features: the organization of agricultural operations on the basis of household operations; an economy where agriculture, industry and commerce complement each other on the basis of their integration at the household level; forms of agricultural cooperation based on mutual assistance and cooperation among households; and a system of rural governance based on the joint governance by household and state. In China’s rural development process, the household system, though at one time discarded, still constitutes the institutional backdrop for current and future rural development.