Household Contract System: Three Perspectives Analysis

The implementation of the household contract system in rural areas in 1978 brought about a series of changes. Politically, it changed the traditional social distribution pattern and established a new relationship between the state, collectives, and farmers. Economically, it liberated rural labor and endowed not only farmers with the rights of production freedom and economic freedom but also collectives with the rights of contracting and supervision and the state with the rights of regulation and final disposition. Socially, it instituted a return to the smallest and most effective agricultural production unit traditionally and an adaptation to the actual productive forces. Institutionally, it formalized the distribution of rural land rights and strengthened the relationship between the state and farmers. In this sense, we say that the household contract system was a system design that involved political, economic, and social relations, which led to its starting role in rural reform. The current research is based on this topic, taking the perspective of the change in China’s rural land system and using the abovementioned three aspects as the entry points, with the aim of providing an analytical explanation of the household contract system.