Rural Urbanization As An Issue Area

Like blind men studying the elephant, which aspect of the rural reforms one addresses determines one's perspective on the reforms' impact on the distribution of authority. A village-level focus may show a major transformation, as a new generation of rich peasants takes control from former production-team leaders (White 1987). The privatization of wholesale and long-distance trading would show a dramatic drop in state controls, depending on the location (Watson 1988). But studying "rural urbanization" demonstrates that a decreasing scope for the national plan need not lead to a total shift to a market economy.

This issue area is constrained for several reasons. First, unlike marketing reforms that cross administrative boundaries, these expanding settlements overlap with the existing administrative hierarchy, so prereform authority patterns persist within the reforming rural bureaucracy and community. Second, these settlements and towns remain the locus of Party and government committees and political authority at the county and subcounty levels. Towns are the site of income-enhancing opportunities, the end point of migration, and their governments own much of the expanding industrial base, allowing bureaucrats there to influence strongly the flow of people and resources.

Furthermore, the central government left responsibility for the rural urbanization process to county and county-town governments. (See the appendix to this chapter.) But limited resources for urban infrastructure lets the county influence resource allocations and maintain relations of dependency over lower levels in the hierarchy. This phenomenon mirrors that outlined in Chapter 11 in this volume.

To demonstrate how the rural bureaucracy influences the rural urbanization process I examine prereform rural settlements and administrative hierarchy and then describe administrative changes that have oc-

curred under the reforms. Then I discuss how county officials control developments in the county. Through planning, imposing development labels, and "nesting" administrative offices and enterprises within the physical boundaries of the county-towns and townships, the county has maintained significant control over localities within its domain. A study of the struggle among the county, county-towns, and townships over funds for town development will help clarify this relationship. I also show how county-town and township officials control access to the towns. In conclusion I draw some generalizations about the relationship between resources, hierarchy, and political authority as they relate to rural urbanization.