The integrated development of urban and rural areas requires that the government take responsibility for the overall development of the countryside. Chinese agricultural and rural policies characterized by state inter...The integrated development of urban and rural areas requires that the government take responsibility for the overall development of the countryside. Chinese agricultural and rural policies characterized by state intervention and government leadership have played an important role in promoting agricultural development and increasing farmers’ incomes as well as balancing development in urban and rural areas. However, the effectiveness of current agricultural policies in promoting agricultural productivity is now clearly leveling off. Given this situation, the authors argue that it is imperative to construct a new analytical framework featuring government regulation and guidance of agricultural and rural development. In this framework, the government must clearly define the boundaries between its activities and those of the market and rural social organizations. While fully respecting the fundamental role of the market in allocation of resources and rural self-management, the government should exercise its power as a backstop. Further, the government needs to establish a logical sequence for government functions such as formulating the basic operating system of the market and society, correcting market failure and social dysfunction and cultivating market/social entities. To use this new analytical framework to strengthen and improve its regulation and guidance of agricultural and rural development, the government needs to reform the basic rural management and agricultural support and protection systems and to pay attention to the cultivation of market entities in agricultural production on the basis of agricultural marketization. Furthermore, it needs to construct a basic urban-rural integrated public service system with the government as the leading actor, carry out innovations in the management system of rural society and fully mobilize the social forces to take part in the administration of public affairs. It also needs to reconstruct the system of government administration and management to ensure the thorough implementation of agricultural and rural development policies.展开更多
文摘The integrated development of urban and rural areas requires that the government take responsibility for the overall development of the countryside. Chinese agricultural and rural policies characterized by state intervention and government leadership have played an important role in promoting agricultural development and increasing farmers’ incomes as well as balancing development in urban and rural areas. However, the effectiveness of current agricultural policies in promoting agricultural productivity is now clearly leveling off. Given this situation, the authors argue that it is imperative to construct a new analytical framework featuring government regulation and guidance of agricultural and rural development. In this framework, the government must clearly define the boundaries between its activities and those of the market and rural social organizations. While fully respecting the fundamental role of the market in allocation of resources and rural self-management, the government should exercise its power as a backstop. Further, the government needs to establish a logical sequence for government functions such as formulating the basic operating system of the market and society, correcting market failure and social dysfunction and cultivating market/social entities. To use this new analytical framework to strengthen and improve its regulation and guidance of agricultural and rural development, the government needs to reform the basic rural management and agricultural support and protection systems and to pay attention to the cultivation of market entities in agricultural production on the basis of agricultural marketization. Furthermore, it needs to construct a basic urban-rural integrated public service system with the government as the leading actor, carry out innovations in the management system of rural society and fully mobilize the social forces to take part in the administration of public affairs. It also needs to reconstruct the system of government administration and management to ensure the thorough implementation of agricultural and rural development policies.
