NailhousesChongqing2007Ballard2008.pptVIP

“Nail houses”Chongqing 2007 Ballard 2008 Wu Ping and Yang Wu, the owner of the only two-story brick building, left their house on Monday afternoon after reaching an agreement over the compensation with the developer through six times of mediation of local court, local media reported. Xinhua, 4/3/07 All Edith Macefield wanted to do was live out her days in her small Ballard home, refusing to sell to developers, who simply built around her. She died Sunday at age 86. P-I, 6/18/08 State “rule of law” initiative re: land Land Management Law (1998) Rural Land Contracting Law (2002) Property Law (2007) 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao “We absolutely cannot commit a historic error over land problems” State Council increasing number of “mass incidents involving… contracted land Rural Land Contract disputes Rural land contract disputes Two major categories of contract disputes over Conversion of farmland to non-ag uses Transfer of agricultural land Rural land contract disputes—the state as party to disputes Ironically, state structures and interests --economic, political, and legal-- are themselves root causes of conflict over land. Local officials’ incentives shaped by Economic: fiscal system Political: cadre evaluation system Legal: laws governing rural land * Fiscal Policy Background 1994 tax and fiscal reforms Established National Tax Service (collects central and shared taxes under Tax Sharing System) Budgetary revenue as share of GDP 1994 10.8 percent 2005 17.3 percent Centralized control over fiscal revenue Center’s share of budgetary revenue 1993 22 percent Since 1994 ~ 50 percent Continued decentralized expenditure responsibility ? Revenue squeeze on local governments * Fiscal Policy Background in 1993, counties and townships at the bottom of the government hierarchy controlled 32 percent of revenues while bearing responsibility for 27 percent of expenditures. By 1998, they controlled only 20 percent of revenues while shouldering respo