This book is an analysis and exploration of the relationship between peasants and policies
within the process of reform in China. After examining the long term rural policies either
before or after the reform it was found that all these polices have been expected to promote
peasants' interests and claimed to take enhancing peasants' happiness as their goal.
Nonetheless the history and current reality of rural development have demonstrated that the
same policy starting point had lead to very different policy designs. Even today quite a few
institutional arrangements with good intentions have ended up with opposite results and have
even become bad policies that do harm to people. This book argues that the reason for such
serious deviation between political intentions and institutional arrangements as well as
between policy goals and its results is: as a political force the peasantry itself has not
effectively engaged with the political process of the country.
