The Responsibility System in Agriculture

In the post-Mao years, particularly since the Third Plenum held in December 1978, China has undertaken a series of reforms in virtually all spheres of political, economic, social, and cultural life. Of all reforms, the most profound and rapid have been those in the policies, institutions, and practices in the countryside. In no other sphere has political control by the upper levels been relaxed to a greater extent; nowhere have relative autonomy and freedom in managing economic affairs on the part of the lowest-level units, the households, and the individual producers been restored more quickly; and nowhere have the market mechanism and individual incentives been given a more important place within the overal