Changing Social Structure

Abstract

During the Mao era, individuals depended on the state for survival, as the state monopolized virtually all important resources and opportunities, including necessities of life. If Durkheim’s concept of traditional and modern society¹⁷¹ can be extended to apply to Mao’s China, the Maoist society could be called an administrative ‘mechanic’ society, in which people and institutions were mechanically organized by the state through central planning. Economic and social activities were determined by administrative orders, rather than, as in a modem ‘organic’ society, by contract-based market forces or ‘organic interdependence’. The danwei, the state-controlled work units, dominated every aspect of people’s life, from jobs to housing to marriage. Daily necessities were strictly rationed as a result of the shortage economy.