Egalitarianism, subsistence provision, and work incentives in China's agricultural collectives

Abstract

Collective agriculture in China failed because its reward system was too egalitarian to provide sufficient work incentives to the peasants. A popular view attributes egalitarianism to the difficulties of monitoring work effort in a team. An alternative view, presented here, argues that: (a) the egalitarian provision of "basic" foodgrains to peasant households reflected more generally the consumption problem of the peasantry who were impoverished by the state's policy of extracting agriculture; and (b) as a remuneration system time rates better served the work-and-income-sharing purpose than piece-rates and therefore better protected households with high dependency ratios. Egalitarianism survives under the household farming system. © 1994.