ABSTRACT
The Soviet experience can be contrasted with that of the socialization of agriculture in revolutionary China. Between 1978 and the mid-1980s, the commune system in Chinese agriculture was completely abandoned and Chinese agriculture was partially privatized. Some leftist critics have argued that the regime's dismantling of the communes and privatization of agriculture has resulted in the systematic undermining of the entire socialist system developed since 1949. The Cuban case is a contrast to those of China and the Soviet Union. The implementation of the agrarian reform program was accelerated and a large number of land seizures took place as the political consciousness and mobilization of the poor peasantry and the agricultural semiproletariat increased. The capitalist transformation of agriculture in many Third World societies has proceeded slowly, and small-scale peasant agriculture tends to be present. Voluntary cooperativization, promoted by material incentives and technical assistance rather than coercive measures, is the appropriate approach to the socialist transformation of peasant-based agriculture.
