Visible and invisible hands intertwined: State-market symbiotic interactions and changing income inequality in urban China

Analyzing the restructured political economy in 21st-century urban China, this project develops a “symbiotic interaction” model and reconceptualizes the state-market relationship to appreciate the changing inequality patterns. As the state and market have formed a long-term, intimate relationship, dynamic state policies interact with the fragmented labor market to redefine a set of socioeconomic capitals and statuses in affecting income inequality. Drawing empirical evidence from the Chinese General Social Survey 2003 and 2013 data, this paper employs linear and unconditional quantile regressions to compare income disparity patterns along both temporal and socio-spatial dimensions. The findings show that multiple key factors, including human capital (e.g., college education), political capital (e.g., party membership), occupational status (e.g., self-employment), and organizational type (e.g., state-owned enterprise), have all changed their economic returns over time and also played different roles for various earning groups. These findings suggest that we should conduct substantive institutional analyses of the evolving state-market relationship and their interplay to achieve a deeper understanding of the reshuffled stratification order in contemporary China. The proposed analytical framework also has broad implications in the research of other transitional economies.     

The downside of marketization: A multilevel analysis of housing tenure and types in reform-era urban China

Based on data from the 2005 National Population Sample Survey and compiled covariates of 205 prefectures, this research adopted principal-component and multilevel-logistic analyses to study homeownership in urban China. Although the housing reform has severed the link between work units and residence, working in state sectors (government, state-owned enterprises and collective firms) remained significant in determining a household’s entitlement to reform-era housing with heavy subsidies or better qualities. While the prefecture-level index of marketization reduced local homeownership of self-built housing, affordable housing and privatized housing, its effect is moderated by cross-level interactions with income, education and working in state sectors across different types of housing. Meanwhile, the index of political and market connections promoted all types of homeownership except for self-built housing. By situating the downside of marketization within a context of urban transformation, this research not only challenges the teleological premise of the neoliberal market transition theory but calls for research on institutional dynamics and social consequences of urban transformation in China.     

From institutional segmentation to market fragmentation: Institutional transformation and the shifting stratification order in urban China

Focusing on the changing roles of organizations, this study develops an institutional framework to examine the shifting stratification order since the mid-1990s in urban China. We argue that, after the mid-1990s, the Chinese state led a dual process of institutional transformation. On the one hand, the state dismantled the socialist redistributive system and broke down institutional segmentation based on organizational ownership and bureaucratic rank. On the other hand, the state developed different markets with various paces and strategies, resulting in fragmented market environments. In this context, reformed organizations interacted with heterogeneous market conditions to exert different impacts on multiple dimensions of social inequality. We draw empirical evidence from two national survey data collected in 1994 and 2003 during a critical period. Our findings show that the foundation of the stratification order has shifted from institutional segmentation to market fragmentation in urban China. This study calls for substantive institutional analysis to better understand the intricate landscape of social inequality in transitional economies.     

From general discrimination to segmented inequality: Migration and inequality in urban China

Internal migration in China during the last three decades, the largest in human history, offers a rare opportunity to understand inequalities in the making. Using data spanning 10 years from China’s largest metropolis, Shanghai, this study assesses how enduring state institutions interplay with the spread of market forces to shape income inequality between migrants and native urban workers. Though the wages of both Chinese migrants and urban workers rose considerably, economic restructuring during the decade under study resulted in diminished privileges for urbanites and subsequently increased collision between migrants and urban workers in the private sectors. These shifts, rather than substantially reducing inequality, have led to an evolving form of inequality, from an initial general blatant discrimination against migrants across the board, to a new and more subtle form of inequality characterized by substantial segmented discrimination against migrants within economic sectors, with the degree of inequality varying from sector to sector. We discuss how this changing inequality reflects complementary rather than competing roles of the state and market institutions in inequality creation and maintenance.     

亚当·斯密的《国富论》与中国

政治经济学的奠基人亚当·斯密在《国富论》中多次提到中国,并提出了关于中国的一些独到的看法。他认为中国的确是当时世界上最富有的国家,中国对白银的需求极大地影响了世界白银的流通和价格。但与西欧国家充满活力的市场经济相比,中国早已陷入停滞不前的状态,与五百年前马可·波罗的描述相差无几。中国落后的根源是因为极端轻视对外贸易,轻视制造业,以及落后的法律制度。作为一位走在时代前列的学者,斯密显然已敏锐地意识到了中国这个巨大市场的重要性,所以,他屡屡对中国的海外贸易政策提出批评。斯密的思想成为当时英国的官方学说,并进而可能影响了英国的对外政策。     

公众参与的“媒体驱动型”特征

当前中国公众参与呈现出"媒体驱动型"特征.这一特征的成因有六:区域性和片段性存在的公民社会;媒体公共领域的生成与初步发展;媒体管理初具社会法团主义特征;新闻专业主义的激发和规范作用;走向"善治"对媒体的现实需求;达成"审议民主"需要媒体作为.本文是一次尝试性的归纳,具体细节尚有待深入的探讨.     

税费改革后农村公共服务提供机制的比较研究——基于湖北与浙江农村的调查

税费改革对我国东西部地区农村公共服务提供机制有着不同的影响。通过分析我国农村公共服务提供机制改革的目标与思路,运用湖北与浙江农村实地调查资料,实证研究税费改革后两地农村公共服务的变革差异、改革经验及存在的深层体制问题,这一切,对农村公共服务提供机制的改善有极大的帮助。     

Societal projection: Beliefs concerning the relationship between development and inequality in China

We examine how the relationship between development and inequality at the societal level is perceived and evaluated by ordinary Chinese people. We hypothesize that because the Chinese have recently experienced rapid increases in both economic growth and social inequality, they tend to view economic development as a driving force of social inequality. To address this question, we conducted a social survey in 2006 in six Chinese provinces (n = 4898). The survey data reveal that a large proportion of Chinese people have internalized a causal model in which they project high levels of inequality onto countries they view as more developed and low levels of inequality onto countries they see as less developed. However, results also show that a smaller proportion of Chinese believe in a negative relationship between development and inequality. Hence, the study reveals heterogeneity among ordinary Chinese in their perceptions of the causal relationship between development and inequality. Surprisingly, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics provide no explanatory power in explaining this heterogeneity.     

中国:政府在市场经济转型中的作用

在中国由传统农业社会向现代工业社会、计划经济体制向市场经济体制的双重转型中 ,随着改革的深入 ,社会所面临的诸种矛盾有日益加剧的可能 ,因此需要发挥政府的作用 ,以协调社会利益关系 ,推动改革前进。政府通过消除对改革的阻碍、建立新体制的基础设施、保持经济的稳定和弥补市场失灵、实现社会公平等方面的工作加速社会转型。在推进经济改革的同时 ,政府还必须推进政治改革和加强自身的建设 ,最大限度的消除政府失灵。     

论中西古代财富思想暗合的五个维度

由于社会历史、政治、经济、文化与地理环境的不同,中西方古代社会人们在经济活动中所形成的财富思想也有着明显的分野.但人类追求财富的经济活动必然有着特定的一般性规律,因而,中西方古代财富思想在某些方面也必然存在着共同点.纵观中西古代财富思想,它们在五个维度上有着深刻的暗合.这五个维度是:开放的理论体系、彰显的伦理道德、关注人性、尊崇自然法原则、关注私有财产.     

Inter-generational micro-class mobility during and after socialism: The power,education, autonomy,capital, and horizontal (PEACH) model in Hungary

We propose a theoretical model of how occupational mobility operates differently under socialism than under market regimes. Our model specifies four vertical dimensions of occupational resources—power, education, autonomy, and capital—plus a horizontal dimension consisting of linkages among occupations in the same economic branch. Given the nature of state socialist political-economic institutions, we expect power to exhibit much stronger effects in the socialist mobility regime, while autonomy and capital should play greater stratifying roles after the market transition. Education should have stable effects, and horizontal linkages should diminish in strength with market reforms. We estimate our model's parameters using data from surveys conducted in Hungary during and after the socialist period. We adopt a micro-class approach, though we test it against approaches that use more aggregated class categories. Our model provides a superior fit to other mobility models, and our results confirm our hypotheses about the distinctive features of the state socialist mobility regime. Mobility researchers often look for common patterns characterizing mobility in all industrialized societies. Our findings suggest that national institutions can produce fundamentally distinct patterns of mobility.     

Women's employment trajectories during early adulthood in urban China: A cohort comparison

This study uses retrospective work history data from CGSS 2008 and employs group-based trajectory analysis to model the diverse employment trajectories of cohorts of urban Chinese women (born in the 1940s–1970s) during young adulthood (age 20–35). We identify ideal-types of urban women's employment trajectories and explore traits associated with each group type. In particular, we examine whether and how the timing of marriage and fertility as well as socioeconomic background help to distinguish patterns of women's labor force attachment in young adulthood. We also examine how these patterns change across cohorts given China's rapid social transformations in the past few decades. We find that delaying family formation is generally associated with more consistent work attachment, but this relationship is also largely associated with one's socioeconomic background. Our results reveal significant cohort variations in the shape of women's employment trajectories and we discuss how institutional and cultural contexts of different historical periods could have shaped family formation and employment processes differently. Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of urban women's work and family formation patterns in the context of rising gender inequalities and rapid socioeconomic transformation over time.     

韦伯理论的局限及其在中国的误用

韦伯“一般过渡理论”和“三个理想权威模型”的概念范畴,不具备对中国社会和政治权威作合理解释的效力。其“理性”是狭义的,其“法制统治理想类型”的模式化缺乏严格定义。中国政治不是西方那个攫取权力的角逐概念,是料理社会、人世事物。一个治理者的政治,取决于个人是什么样的人和实行什么样的政策。中国的法,多是处理政事的具体办法或指导性规则的概念。实在经验中不存在这样的“理想类型”能表述的事情;关键不是理性不理性,也不是“魅力”还是“理性法制”,问题在社会占统治地位的人,把攫取利润作为人生的最终目的;是这个目的将现代资本主义社会与其他社会区别开来。     

市场发育、政府主导和社会管理创新——五届“中国地方政府创新奖”浙江项目的分析

社会管理创新表征着一个区域的经济社会发展程度和区域性格。围绕多元协同治理机制的构建、社会权利导向制度环境的营造,以及政府社会管理能力的提升,浙江省各地政府和群众进行了一系列积极探索。分析发现,社会管理创新体现了市场发育对于上层建筑变革的要求,并由此规定了社会管理创新必须立足于区域经济社会发展状况;同时也是地方政府积极推动的结果,通过国家力量提升社会管理创新水平是一种现实选择,但须注意其限度。     

论我国公共治理中公民角色的多元并存与转化

目前,公共治理中的公民角色研究呈现出对治理型公民的推崇和对顾客型公民的批判。但诸多原因决定了在我国现阶段公共治理中,治理者与顾客二种公民角色将共生共存,有必要区别分析、深入研究,并采用有效方法推动顾客型公民向治理型公民转化。     

股东筛选、财富转移与投资者保护——管理层收购在中国的困境与出路

MBO在中国的发展遇到了两股相反的力量,国有企业改革的股东筛选行动要求进行MBO,而由于国有产权的代表体系不健全和完备定价机制的缺乏,又使MBO有成为国有资产流失通道的危险,MBO在中国陷入了困境。本文在总结既有理论的基础上提出了解释MBO和该困境的新框架,认为投资者保护水平是决定MBO成为财富转移手段还是效率提高通道的关键。突破MBO在中国的困境就需要大力提高投资者保护水平,这应从明晰产权、建立完善的投资者权利救济制度和完备的定价机制三个方面入手,进而促进MBO的健康发展。     

公共服务市场化中的利益冲突及其协调——以有线电视模转数的公共服务为例

公共服务市场化适应了社会需求,促进了公共治理模式的转变,重塑了政府、市场和公民社会的关系.但由于公共服务领域的“公共性”与市场的“私利性”矛盾,市场化过程亦充满了各种诉求与利益的冲突,包括政府诉求与市场利益的冲突、公众诉求与市场利益的冲突以及政府诉求与公众利益的冲突.应通过增强政府公共服务能力,保障基本的公共需求、加强对市场的规制,确保公共服务的规范运作以及引导市场主体和公众正确认识公共服务市场化等方面来协调利益冲突.     

我国公共行政学的危机：概念矛盾与研究困境

概念的混乱、研究路径的不清和研究方法的褊狭是当前我国公共行政学遭受质疑、面临发展危机的重要原因.我国公共行政学要走出危机首先必须面向实践,从研究中国的实际出发,对概念体系和学科体系进行重新梳理,建立既符合中国传统和现实,又有利于国际交流的概念体系和理论框架,其次还应重视研究方法的训练和运用,并加强微观领域公共问题的研究.     

当代中国意识形态转型的历程与观念——由我国私营企业主阶层兴起引发的思考

意识形态是这个时代的哲学主题,人们对这个时代的思考愈深入,就会愈益自觉地汇聚到一个焦点上,这就是意识形态及其转型问题。研究当代中国意识形态的转型涉及这样几个重要问题:当代中国意识形态转型过程中形成哪些社会思潮及其思想论争;意识形态转型有着怎样的理论选择、现实基础,经历了怎样的转型历程与观念变革。中国私营企业主从有到无、又从无到有、再从有到优的历史命运,体现了国家意识形态对私营企业主从批判到允许再到鼓励、从消灭到培育再到引导的理论转变,这一社会历史现象是深入研究当代中国意识形态转型的重要维度,它标示着当代中国意识形态经历了从"革命型"到"建设型"再到"和谐型"的两次历史性转型。     

当代中国行政发展:逻辑的与历史的统一

改革开放以来,经济体制的转轨推动着当代中国社会的转型,在社会转型的背景下要求政府的行政发展.行政发展不是政府的某一方面的变革,而是以现代行政价值为导向的系统化、综合性的发展,这种发展可以表述为政府转型.政府转型是从以往的传统化的国家取向型的政府转向社会取向型政府,其实质和目标为建立现代政府制度.