Privatization reform of Israel’s Kibbutzim and its implications

It is significant for China’s rural vitalization strategy to improve the strength and the guiding role of rural collective economic organizations. In the past, the collectivization ended with failures, and currently there are still some problems in the reform of the rural collective property right system and the development of new collective economic organizations. Therefore, the experiences from foreign countries can provide some implications for China. Beginning with the institutions of the Kibbutzim and the backgrounds of the reform, this paper tried to uncover the nature of the reform through a detailed analysis of the contents, the route and the impacts of the reform based on a literature review and an on-site survey in Israel. Results show that the Kibbutzim’s reform, in nature, is the process of bettering the organization by the separation of ownership and management rights and also a process of reducing the cost by limiting welfare distributions. Furthermore, the reform has been aimed at improving the operational efficiency rather than abolishing the collective ownership system. Meanwhile, the experiences and lessons are obtained from the Kibbutzim’s reform, which is in relation to pushing forward the rural collective economy. The study also implies that the healthy development of the new rural collective economy depends on the members’ devotion to communalism, the independence of the new collective economic organizations and the completeness of the collective economic organization system.