What kind of welfare state is emerging in China?

China is joining the group of countries that have reasonably comprehensive systems of social protection in place. In 2010, the National People´s Congress adopted the first national Social Insurance Law, representing the culmination of a process of radical social reform. The question this paper asks is: what kind of welfare regime is being built in the People´s Republic of China? China has been politically unique. It is one of only five remaining communist states, the others being Cuba, Laos, the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea and Vietnam, and the only one (with some qualification for Vietnam) that has been economically successful. The characteristics of a communist state include centralized power in the hands of a party élite and that this élite is presumably motivated, to varying degrees, by some kind of socialist ideology of statism and social justice. While maintaining its political uniqueness, China has shed its economic uniqueness. With the reform and opening up that started in 1978, it turned its back on planned economy isolationism and has adopted an open socialist market economy. In considering what kind of welfare state is emerging in China, the paper looks at two hypotheses: is China producing a welfare state of its own kind, possibly a "socialist" welfare state? Or, if it is reproducing a conventional welfare state, what kind of previous experience elsewhere is it replicating

Policy actors and policy making for better migrant health in China: From a policy network perspective

Given the phenomenal scale of internal migration in China, migrant health has become a prominent policy issue. Various policy actors are now involved in the development of migrant health policy. However, little is known about who the main policy actors are, what roles they play, how they interact with each other, and how they might improve their collaboration for better migrant health. This paper aims to identify the main policy actors and explore their roles in migrant health policy making. Applying a "policy network" approach, it finds that the marginalization of migrants in terms of health benefits is mainly attributed to a closed policy network resulting from the peculiar political structure and specific institutional arrangements. Based on these findings, the authors argue that an inclusive policy network is needed to overcome the major institutional barriers and better satisfy migrants´ health needs

State Capacity, Policy Learning, and Policy Paradigm Shift: Institutionalization of the Theory of Scientific Development in China

In late 2003, the "theory of scientific development"(kexue fazhanguan) was espoused by the fourth generation of Chinese Communist leadership, led by Hu Jintao. It calls for people-centered development and promotes harmonic devlopment of the economy, society, and human beings. Its effective implementation is considered crucial for achieving sustainable growth and building a moderately prosperous society. Viewing the theory of scientific development as a new policy paradigm advocated by the central policy elites, this article explores the capacity of the Chinese state to institutionalize the shift from the well-entrenched paradigm of all-out development (GDPism) to a new paradigm based on a balance between economic growth, social development, and environmental protection. It argues that while the formulation of the new policy paradigm demonstrates the relatively high capacity of Chinese central policy elites for policy learning, its institutionalization has been a complex and protracted process due to the weakness of societal actors in the policy subsystem, which has resulted mainly from the existing central-local politics, and underdeveloped civil society, and weak links between the state and society in Chin

中国社会政策的走向 : 2004-2007

自21世纪初以来，我国的公共政策格局呈现出从经济政策 到社会政策的转型。本文试图通过分析2004年至2007年的总理《政府工作报告》来观察和描述我国政府的社会政策转型过程。本文认为，自2004年以来，《政府工作报告》有关社会政策的论述和内容在不断增加，显示出社会政策在我国公共政策格局中的地位得到提升，受到高度重视。 Since the beginning of the new century, China’s public policy pattern has been undergoing a transformation from economic policy domination to social policy domination. By examining the contents of the Government Work Reports by the Chinese Premier since 2004, this paper tries to chart the trajectory of this transition from economic policy to social policy. It argues that China’s social policy framework is taking shape and a social policy-dominated public policy pattern has been established since 2004

专项资金与农村义务教育 : 政策工具的视角

公共政策的执行实际就是政策工具的选择过程。不同的政策工具选择对政策目标的达成有不同的影响。以政府财政资源为基础的政策工具是政府可资利用的治理资源。以我国农村义务教育专项资金为例，从政策工具的视角来考察财政资金的运用，分析财政型政策工具在中国农村义务教育政策执行中的作用和问题，可以为思考中国农村义务教育的发展提供一个新的视角。 The enforcement of public policies is, in reality, a process of choosing policy instruments. Different choices of policy instruments may exercise different impacts on the achievement of the policy targets. The policy instrument based on the governmental financial resources is an administrative resource the government can employ. Take the earmarked fund for rural compulsory education as an example. Examining the use of the financial funds from the perspective of policy instruments and analysing the role played by the treasure-based policy instrument in the implementation of China’s rural compulsory education and the corresponding problems existing in the process may provide a new perspective for considering the development of this rural education