论理解社会管理的五种路径

当前学术界和政策界对加强和创新社会管理的重要性和必要性已经达成广泛共识,但社会管理依旧是一个模糊的概念,人们往往是在不同的概念维度和实践方向进行社会管理创新,缺乏共同的话语基础。根据现有理论成果,目前已经形成了理解社会管理创新的五种不同路径,即社会控制(维稳)路径、社会政策路径、公共服务路径、社会组织路径和国家建设路径,沿着不同的路径将产生不同的社会管理创新结果。     

Welfare Attitudes Towards Anti-poverty Policies in China: Economical Individualism,Social Collectivism and Institutional Differences

Public attitudes towards welfare programs is a crucial topic in the field of social policy research. Current studies on welfare attitudes has long been a lack of an explicit conceptualization, and mainly conducted at the individual level with the focus on self-interest. This study distinguished the dimensions of welfare attitudes into responsibility, efficiency and effectiveness, and examined the factors that influence welfare attitudes towards anti-poverty policies in China. Data used in this study came from Chinese National Survey of Public Welfare Attitudes in 2018 with a final sample size of 8296 respondents from three deliberately selected provinces in China. It concluded that welfare attitudes share the traits of economical individualism, social collectivism and institutional differences. Positive perception of work ethics and social cognition about income inequality were two important factors associated with welfare attitudes towards anti-poverty policy. People who were against indolence, idleness and male breadwinner and who were highly sensitive of income inequality were more supportive of the notion that government is responsible for protecting their livelihood, nevertheless, less satisfied with the current standard of substance allowance and performance of policy implementation, indicating an orientation of both individualism and collectivism of welfare attitudes. Besides, welfare attitudes were also motivated by institutional differences such as regional disparities and migrant identity. Therefore, this study suggests that the government should be need-oriented in dealing with of the different dimensions of poverty, and should establish a more unified and generous social welfare system that benefits both the natives and migrants.

     

Social Policy between Plan and Market: Xiagang (Off-duty Employment) and the Policy of the Re-employment Service Centres in China

China's gradual transition from a command economy to a market system has been vexed by its ailing state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) employing huge numbers of surplus workers. Under the growing challenge of market competition, the survival of SOEs depends critically on the release of unwanted staff. If not handled well, however, massive layoffs could trigger ugly protests, erode social stability and challenge the governing mandate of the Chinese Communist Party. Facing this dilemma, the state's response has been to invent a process of ‘xiagang’ (off‐duty employment) whereby redundant state workers can leave the production process without causing social turbulence, and to introduce a national programme of re‐employment service centres (RSCs) which offer living allowances, social security, job training and re‐employment assistance as a transitional measure. As a distinct form of unemployment, xiagang reflects the special challenge confronting the state and civil society in a critical stage of China's market transition. This article sets out to explore the political and social meanings of xiagang and the RSCs to elucidate how the state uses a specific social policy to balance both group and national interests and to steer the country on to the next stage of market development.