from being replicated within new groups. Active, powerful local groups do
not displace government roles, but rather place new, extensive demands on
government.
 Local schools can play a useful role in assisting groups of farmers.
 A teacher can provide some technical input; the school grounds can some-
 times provide a site for a test plot, school children can become better edu-
 cated for productive rural lives. The "peasant universities" of Scandinavia
 are an excellent example. (The risk of special rural schools is the possi-
 bility of institutionalizing a second-class education for rural residents.)
 In addition, adult literacy programs can be encouraged because they strengthen
 mass control over groups; an educated, literate populace will be more
 capable of understanding the finances of the group, more confident about
 participation, and more able to request government intervention to punish
 corruption. Sometimes an interactive communication process, in which
 people form groups to make plays, movies, radio programs, etc., can be
 helpful in creating and reinforcing group dynamics.
 Nourishing group activities is a critical and delicate task. Small,

effective groups can easily be smothered and crushed by rigid government

activities. At the same time, government encouragement, support, and

supervision are needed to assure a suitable balance of personal and group

incentives and to regulate the use of coercion. Large groups and organi-

zations cannot function effectively in a vacuum, and a government which

ignores groups will destroy them as effectively as a government which ri-

gidly controls them.

 An example of a sophisticated, complex combination of policies to

ensure group functioning can be seen in rural China. Work teams are rea-

sonably small enough for each person's efforts to have noticeable impact.



 Dumont, "Training for Rural Development...," p. 19.
 2Rolland Paulston, Folk Schools in Social Change (Pittsburgh:
 University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies, 1974).