ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the problem of famine relief in the context of political and social changes, compares the impact of decentralized and centralized institutions on famine relief systems over the long term. China and Poland provide interesting examples of centralized and decentralized political and social constraints, but the comparative analysis of both countries attempted may raise doubts regarding the differences between the countries. The chapter also analyses government involvement in famine relief, the activity of civil society, and the situation on the market during famines. It focuses on the evolution of disaster relief systems in the periods of economic and political change that have occurred in both regions since the pre-industrial era. Comparing the cases of pre-modern China and Poland, one can see two different paths of famine relief development, with aid being delivered, primarily to the peasants, either by the state in the centralized Chinese model or by the landowners in the decentralized Polish model.
