Chen Ao et al.: How Party-Building Activates Farmers' Agency

Chen Ao, Zhao Yifu, Zhang Haipeng, Wang Lihong

institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Institute of Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

abstract

activating farmers' subjectivity is the key to achieving effective governance. At present, the contradiction between the continuous strengthening of grass-roots party building and the lack of farmers' subjectivity has become a prominent problem restricting the modernization of rural governance. This paper integrates the new institutional economics and field theory, constructs the "system-practice" mutual construction framework under the leadership of party building, takes the civil direct "1234" work method in Kang County, Longnan City, Gansu Province as a typical case, and discusses the internal mechanism of party building leading to activate the subjectivity of farmers. The study found that the party building leads the activation of farmers' subjectivity, which stems from the fact that the party organization takes value guidance, organization construction and interest connection as the institutional basis, and forms a "mutual shaping" relationship with the governance practice of farmers in cognition, action and capital through the vertical coordination of the party organizations at the county, township and village levels. The "system-practice" mutual structure under the guidance of Party building is gradually carried out along the structural layer, normative layer, operational layer and efficiency layer of the rural governance system, promoting the establishment of subject identity, the awakening of subject consciousness and the expansion of subject ability in turn, thus ensuring the manifestation of subject role and enabling farmers' subjectivity with autonomy, consciousness, initiative and creativity to realize layer-by-layer activation. This paper reveals the institutional roots of the activation of farmers' subjectivity, expands the theoretical cognition of grass-roots party building to enhance the effectiveness of rural governance, and provides decision-making support for the exploration of the path of party building leading the modernization of rural governance in the new period.

Keywords

party building leading; farmers' subjectivity; new institutional economics; field theory; effective governance

source: agricultural economic problems, 2026, no 7 (total no 559), pp. 63-76.