Economics and Political Decision-Making in China's Villages

Based on fieldwork and surveys carried out in China's villages, Professor Jean Oi has been examining the effect of different levels and types of economic development on the distribution of power and decision-making in villages. Part of this work was published in a China Quarterly article in 2000. In spring 2001, Professor Oi co-authored a paper with Kaoru Shimizu, entitled "Peasant Burdens in China, 1984-1995: An Empirical Assessment." It was presented at a June 2001 workshop on "Opportunities and Constraints in China's Rural Transition: A Critical Appraisal of Two Decades of Reform and Development", held at the Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The paper will be revised, but it currently provides one of the first estimations of the actual burdens that China's peasant had to bear from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.