ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the constellation of policy choices pertaining to cooperation with respect to production, accumulation, peasant income, and welfare against the background of the Marxist-Leninist tradition and in light of Chinese conditions and conflicting lines on cooperative formation. It attempts to gauge the significance of cooperative and collective transformation in terms of its impact on productivity, accumulation, and income distribution and peasant control over processes of production and planning. As early as 1943 Mao Zedong advanced the goal of rural collectivization built on a foundation of effective cooperation. Mao defined the Chinese road to socialism in the countryside in terms of voluntary peasant organization based on benefit through successive stages from mutual aid to elementary and eventually to advanced cooperatives. The transition to socialism in China's countryside began with land revolution and was followed by staged development of cooperatives. The mobilization logic of the high tide carried to swift completion the formation of advanced cooperatives throughout the Chinese countryside.
