The Chinese Famine

Paper Summary:

The paper utilizes Amartya Sen's entitlement approach to famine as an explanation of the famine during China's Great Leap Forward. The paper argues that the primary reasons for this famine were the fundamental problems in central planning policy, together with structural inadequacies of the government system of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s.

Outline:
Introduction
The Great Leap Forward
Famine - The Theoretical Literature
Famine as a Crisis in Central Planning
The Relevance of the Sen Model
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"In order to understand the famine in China in the late 1950s it is first necessary to understand the political, social and economic context that gave rise to the famine in the first place. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China under a Communist government in 1949, centuries-old traditions of agricultural production and economics were been revised at all levels of Chinese society."
"After 1949 China embarked on a series of Five-Year Plans that were designed to reestablish China's industrial capabilities and increase agricultural production. The shaping of these plans led to considerable political disagreement within the leadership of the People's Republic. The architects of the first of these plans - particularly Chen Yun and Zhou Enlai - believed that material incentives would lead to gradual increases in grain and industrial production (Spence 1990, 575). However, such "gradualism" ran contrary to paramount leader Mao Zedong's "heroic" vision of revolution as "continuing struggle" (Spence 1990, 596)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ashton, B., K. Hill, A. Piazza, and R. Zeitz. 1984. Famine in China, 1958-1961. Population and Development Review. 10(4): 613-645.
• Chang, G.H., and G.J. Wen. 1997. Communal dining and the Chinese famine of 1958-1961. Economic Development and Social Change. 41(1): 1-34.
• Li, W. and D. Yang. 2005. The Great Leap Forward: Anatomy of acentral planning disaster. Journal of Political Economy.113(4): 840-875.
• Lin, J. 1990. Collectivization and China's agricultural crisis. The Journal of Political Economy. 98(6): 1228-1252.
• Lin, J. and D. Tang. 2000. Food availability, entitlements and the Chinese famine of 1959-1961. The Economic Journal. 110: 136-158.

More papers on The Chinese Famine:

• Research Paper # 147263 : "Genocide, Famine and the Great Leap Forward"
• Research Paper # 88609 : "China's 1959-1962 Famine "
• Term Paper # 110855 : "The Ming Dynasty's Demise"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: