1.2.5.2 Communistic Agriculture

Communistic agriculture can be based on a political and an ethical-religious syndrome. In contrast to kolkhozes, the Chinese people's communes are a form of collectivization comprising all economic and living sectors in other words,not only agriculture. The entire population in a region belongs to it, not only the agricultural population. This entity that can be as large as a rural district organizes within the area it covers agricultural and industrial production, services, education, health services, cultural programmes, the administration, and political matters as well as some aspects of consumption and personal life.

Work is rigidly organized in a fashion similar to in the military and is descliplined. Internally, they are divided into three levels that carry out the work (production groups, production brigades, and communes), whereby the relationships between state commune and commune-brigade are regulated by contracts. The economic activities take place within the framework of state planning that, however, leaves room for local decisions.

The basic needs are regulated in an egalitarian manner and met with a basic cash wage and pay in kind in the form of staples as well as free education and health services, etc. In addition, it proved necessary to introduce bonuses in order to increase productivity as well as to allow private small- scale farming. Thus the society is in principle classless, but bonuses and private household plots as well as the existence of functionaries led to the formation of new social strata. However, the differences in income are no longer the result of differences between persons and/or families but rather between communes with different production and marketing conditions. These, in some cases, considerable differences are not directly noticeable.

The system is still in a process of change and has also led to important transformations in the society, e. g., the old family system no longer exists and woman have been granted equality. It is particularly the success in organizing the population to build up the economy and form capital that makes this system attractive for other countries. It must be mentioned, however, that the possibility of, and conditions for, successfully introducing the system in other countries have not been adequately analysed.

Collectivization has not been limited to socialistic systems. From of old, philosophical and religious communities have tried to create a way of life devoid of social differences, property, and mutual exploitation in other words, under the signs of fraternity, equality, and justice. Usually they were smalll groups. In durability and significance, the kibbuz in Israel stands out among the other groups. This is a voluntary community, comprising people, land, and capital for the purpose of collective production, distribution, consumption, and living. In all comunistic forms, coercion played an important role in making the people take part. This took place either in the form of political pressure or an acute state of distress for the population that could be more rapidly overcome in a collective.