Contemporary China’s Rural Landownership with Reference to Antony M. Honoré’s Concept of Ownership

Meng, Gaofeng

Abstract

This article analyses the property rights that Chinese peasants have under the present Household Responsibility System (HRS) using Antony M. Honoré’s work on ownership, especially his analysis of eleven standard incidents of the full liberal concept of ownership. It confirms Honoré’s insight that these standard incidents can be divided among two or more persons, and thus there are different types of property rights which are variants and alternatives to the liberal type of property rights. This article also confirms that the Chinese land system is a real alternative to the full liberal concept of ownership. The current Chinese land system is alleged to be “unclear and insecure” because it is not the kind of private ownership that neoliberals champion. In the tradition of the “bundle of rights” theory, it is helpful to use Honoré’s concept of ownership, rather than Harold Demsetz’s type of property rights, to understand the current Chinese system.

Citation

Meng, G. (2016). Contemporary China’s Rural Landownership with Reference to Antony M. Honoré’s Concept of Ownership. Journal of Economic Issues, 50(3), 667-694. https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2016.1210377

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 8, 2016
• Publication Date: Aug 11, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Economic Issues
• Print ISSN: 0021-3624
• Electronic ISSN: 1946-326X
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 667-694
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2016.1210377
• Keywords: eleven ingredients of ownership, Household Responsibility System, ; split ownership
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2016.1210377?needAccess=true