Work Points: Rural Order Construction and Farmer Action

Under the People’s Commune system, the production team was the basic production and operation unit, while the functions of consumption and social reproduction were retained by the family. Under this production mode, there were inevitably contradictions between the collectivization of production and the privatization of consumption. The purpose of the work point system was to solve this problem of collective production. History shows that because of the continuous improvement and refinement of the work point system, collective production was realized, agriculture was continuously developed, and a new order centered around work points was gradually established in rural areas. However, due to the complexity and low level of development of Chinese agriculture itself, the emergence and evolution of the work point system did not generate firm supporters or strong momentum in the new order; in contrast, grabbing work, earning points, arranging work, and assigning tasks all caused conflicts and contradictions between families and between cadres and the masses to constantly emerge. In the end, the perfection of the work point system had to be realized with the disintegration of collective production, and the new rural order constructed gradually returned to tradition.