Understanding Local Agency in China’s Policy Reform

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

2. Chapter 1. Social Policy Reform and Local Agency in China

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   This introductory chapter presents the central claims of this book and its salience. It begins with an assessment of social policy reform in China and the “new welfare politics” with subnational variations. What does the new social policy mean for the “new urban poor”? Why are there persistent subnational variations despite increasing top-down pressure? To answer the key research questions, the chapter turns to the book’s two key frames, authoritarian political institutions and local growth strategies, and how they together have shaped the varying trajectories of local agency. The chapter then clarifies the salience of the policy domains and cases selected and previews the chapter to come.

3. Chapter 2. Authoritarian State, Growth Strategies, and Subnational Welfare Politics

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   To situate the book’s analytical contribution, this chapter begins with a parallel assessment of the comparative and Chinese literature on social policy. It then defines the key concept of welfare mix in China’s authoritarian context, examines how it emerged, and discusses the nature of subnational variations. The rest of the chapter elaborates the theoretical framework in greater detail, examining the causal processes and mechanisms of the emerging welfare mix model through the interaction of political institutions and local growth regimes. At local level, state corporatist institutions in economic and social domains play key roles in channeling preferences and priorities of local dominant social blocs. Social policy processes and outcomes can be understood as instruments for creating local definitions of insiders and outsiders and maintaining a tacit agreement with the dominant social blocs. The new urban poor is in general excluded from these processes but deeply affected by their outcomes.

4. Chapter 3. The Pro-growth National Reforms: State-Led Commodification Before 2000s

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   This and the next chapter provide an overview of national reform trajectories and their effects on local agency. This chapter begins with an overview of pro-growth models across housing, healthcare, and old-age care before 2000s. It then explains how local agency was enabled through the pro-growth logics in earlier reforms and the associated decentralization policy processes.

5. Chapter 4. The Return of the State? The New Reforms and Changing Local Agency

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   This chapter continues the overview of national reform trajectories. It begins with a review of a new wave of social policy reforms since 2000s that were reoriented towards social justice and entitlement across all three policy domains. The outcomes of these reforms however suggest that the return of the state is incomplete and that local implementation outcomes vary. The chapter then concludes with a preliminary assessment of evolving central-local relations and new faces of local agency in the new era of policy recentralization.

6. Chapter 5. Limits of Fragmented Universalism: Local Agency in Healthcare

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   This chapter examines local agency in healthcare reform. The case of healthcare is particularly intriguing because it took the most dramatic turn from the pro-growth model due to the SARS crisis. In other words, healthcare seems to the most difficult case for the local agency as the “return of the state” has been less ambiguous in national reform rhetoric. The 2009 healthcare reform announced ambitious plans for expansion of coverage through the employment- and residence-based health insurance, as well as mandated increase in government spending in Medical Aid. Beyond the progress, nonetheless, there have been persistent variations in levels of stratification and service delivery patterns at the local level driven by growth considerations and political institutional constraints.

7. Chapter 6. Asset-Based Welfare or Public Rental? Local Agency in Affordable Housing

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   This chapter applies the theoretical framework to affordable housing. In comparison to healthcare, the top-down pressure is much less evident in this area due to failed central attempts to pass a separate national housing law or integrate housing into the social insurance law. The chapter begins with an introduction of three highly decentralized policy instruments: the contributory social insurance program of housing provident fund, the asset-based welfare programs that primarily benefit local residents, and the means-tested or category-based public rental programs that target the “new urban poor.” Although the central government has mandated the expansion of coverage in recent years throughout these programs, the highly decentralized nature of policy implementation has resulted in significant local disparities. Local governments often choose to prioritize instruments that are mostly compatible with local growth models.

8. Chapter 7. Local Agency in Old-Age Care: Articulating State, Society, and Family

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   This chapter explores the case of old-age care reform in context of an emerging aging crisis. Similar to earlier chapters, it begins with an overview of three policy instruments in pension and old-age care: the contributory employee and resident social pensions, and the means-tested or category-based elderly assistance programs. Pension reform is particularly intriguing because of the strong resistance in the state sector yet greater inclusion of migrants across all four cases. While the civil servant pension reform in 2010s involved significant bargaining and compromise at both central and local level, the inclusion of migrants helped sustain local pension funds while meeting top-down pressure. Beyond employment-based pension, nonetheless, local governments are highly selective in providing elderly protection for the “new urban poor,” while adopting varying strategies in coordinating service delivery.

9. Chapter 8. State Responsibility or Societal Participation? The Future of Authoritarian Social Policies

   Xiaoye She

   Abstract

   The concluding chapter summarizes the findings of previous chapters. Although China’s social policy reform somewhat resembles the “hybridization” patterns in post-communist countries, the processes of internalization of existing foreign models, as well as their reinventions through local experiments are distinctive in a decentralized authoritarian system. It is more appropriate to characterize the domestic policy processes as a multi-level game rather than prioritizing one set of actors or level over others. The authoritarian political institutions still define the boundaries of local agency. Local welfare mix models are most coherent and more compatible with growth models when there are less political institutional constraints. Furthermore, there are a few inherent tensions in the new model, especially between decentralization and recentralization, state dominance and pluralization, as well as political authoritarianism and participation or accountability. The future of social policy reform therefore remains highly uncertain given increasing political centralization under Xi Jinping.

10. Backmatter