Defining the Property Rights in the Context of Township and Village Collective Enterprises

As an important part of social life in the history of economic development , defining the property rights is a process of interactions between concerned parties to reach or change an agreement or contract on the nature of the property rights.The experience in changing the ownership of township and village collective enterprises (TVEs) in contemporary China since the mid 1990s demonstrates that the public property in these enterprises is defined largely by social factors, instead of market forces.To be more specific , the social contract regarding the nature of the property rights in these enterprises is neither an institution consciously designed nor a spontaneous consequence of social relationships.Rather, it results from the integration of social interactions in the economic development of rural areas, and it reflects public efforts to reach a harmonious social order.The contract thus formed functions to soften tensions on property-related issues and foster cooperation in rural communities when the market-based and market-oriented contact is still under construction.However, the role of this kind of contract seems to be limited when dramatic transformation in the institutional environment of rural communities occurs . On the other hand, if the government, in pushing forward its property rights reforms, replaces the social contract of the property rights in TVEs with deliberately institutionalized systems without properly considering how the functions of the former are to be continued or substituted, the sustainable development of rural communities might be at stake.

折晓叶,陈婴婴

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