Land Reform and Political Recruitment: State Building in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-57

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of land reform for state building in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. The paper argues that the land reform movement helped increase grassroots recruitment and dismantle the social institutions associated with pre-revolutionary elites, in addition to redistributing land. The analysis leverages the staggered implementation of land reform across counties. It finds that the reform was associated with significant increases in the numbers of members and branches of the Communist Party of China, which are proxies for the party’s organizational strength. The impact was greater in counties with stronger presence of pre-revolutionary elites, but not strongly associated with higher levels of land inequality. Moreover, political recruitment was positively associated with greater fiscal extraction and other items on the party’s policy agenda. These findings shed new light on how revolutionary regimes win over developing societies, emphasizing the mutual reinforcement of land reform and political recruitment in state building.