Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T23:54:06.999Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Local Policy Discretion in Social Welfare: Explaining Subnational Variations in China's De Facto Urban Poverty Line

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2021

Yu Guo ,
Alex Jingwei He Open the ORCID record for Alex Jingwei He [Opens in a new window]  and
Fei Wang
Yu Guo
Affiliation:
School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China. ORCID: 0000-0003-1493-5344. Email: [email protected].
Alex Jingwei He*
Affiliation:
Department of Asian and Policy Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. ORCID: 0000-0001-9024-4831.
Fei Wang
Affiliation:
School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China. ORCID: 0000-0002-3456-3157. Email: [email protected].
*
Email: [email protected] (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do subnational agents exercise policy discretion in the social welfare sphere? To what extent do they do so as a result of various bureaucratic and fiscal incentives? The literature has documented several explanatory frameworks in the context of China that predominantly focus on the realm of developmental policies. Owing to the salient characteristics of the social policy arena, local adaptation of centrally designed policies may operate on distinctive logics. This study synthesizes the recent scholarship on subnational social policymaking and explains the significant interregional disparities in China's de facto urban poverty line – the eligibility standard of the urban minimum livelihood guarantee scheme, or dibao. Five research hypotheses are formulated for empirical examination: fiscal power effect, population effect, fiscal dependency effect, province effect and neighbour effect. Quantitative analysis of provincial-level panel data largely endorses the hypotheses. The remarkable subnational variations in dibao standards are explained by a salient constellation of fiscal and political factors that are embedded within the country's complex intergovernmental relations and fiscal arrangements. Both a race-to-the-top and a race-to-the-bottom may be fostered by distinctive mechanisms. The unique role of provincial governments as intermediary agents within China's political apparatus is illuminated in the social policy arena.

摘要

摘要

在社会福利领域，地方政府如何行使政策自由裁量权？又会在多大程度上出于各种行政和财政激励机制来行使裁量权？现有文献探讨了中国背景下的主要解释框架，研究重点多聚焦于经济发展领域。由于社会政策领域的固有特征，地方政府可能遵循不同的逻辑对中央政策进行适配。本文基于地方社会政策制定的研究成果，解释了中国的事实城市贫困线（城市最低生活保障标准）中所存在的重大地区差距。本研究通过省级面板数据的回归分析，对五个研究假设进行了实证检验：财政能力效应、人口效应、财政依赖效应、省级政府效应和邻省效应。研究发现，低保标准中的地方差异可以用一系列复杂的府际关系和财政安排中所体现的财政和政治逻辑来解释。在低保标准的制定过程中，地方政府间既有逐底竞争，也存在逐顶竞争。本文着重阐明了省级政府作为中国政治体制的 “中间层” 在社会政策领域的独特作用。

Keywords

race to the toprace to the bottomprovincial governmentcentral–local relationsdibaopoverty line逐顶竞争逐底竞争省级政府央地关系最低生活保障贫困线
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 249 , March 2022 , pp. 114 - 138
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carrillo, Beatriz, and Duckett, Jane. 2011. China's Changing Welfare Mix: Local Perspectives. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Anita. 2003. “A ‘race to the bottom’: globalization and China's labor standards.” China Perspectives 46, 1–13.Google Scholar
Chang, Yufang, and Ku, Yuenwen. 2013. “Social policy and its implications to structural shifts: a comparison between Taiwan and Korea in the colonial era.” In Izuhara, Misa (ed.), Handbook on East Asian Social Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckett, Jane. 2001. “Political interests and the implementation of China's urban health insurance reform.” Social Policy and Administration 35(3), 290–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edin, Maria. 2003a. “State capacity and local agent control in China: CCP cadre management from a township perspective.” The China Quarterly 173, 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edin, Maria. 2003b. “Remaking the communist party-state: the cadre responsibility system at the local level in China.” China: An International Journal 1(1), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gu, Edward X. 2001. “Dismantling the Chinese mini-welfare state? Marketization and the politics of institutional transformation, 1979–1999.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 34(1), 91–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guo, Yu, Fu, Yuanyuan, Chui, Ernest Wing-tak and Xue, Mei. 2017. “Equity, efficiency and effectiveness: an evaluation study of the urban minimum livelihood guarantee scheme in China.” Journal of Asian Public Policy 10(2), 143–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafsson, Bjorn A., and Deng, Quheng. 2011. “Dibao receipt and its importance for combating poverty in urban China.” Poverty and Public Policy 3(1), 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, Daniel R. 2011. “Social assistance in China, 1993–2002: institutions, feedback, and policy actors in the Chinese policy process.” Asian Politics and Policy 3(1), 69–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, Daniel R. 2013. “Policy entrepreneurship in China's response to urban poverty.” Policy Studies Journal 41(1), 119–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, Li, and Kung, James Kai Sing. 2015. “Fiscal incentives and policy choices of local governments: evidence from China.” Journal of Development Economics 116, 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Jingwei Alex. 2018. “Manoeuvring within a fragmented bureaucracy: policy entrepreneurship in China's local healthcare reform.” The China Quarterly 236, 1088–1110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Jingwei Alex, Ratigan, Kerry and Qian, Jiwei. 2021. “Attitudinal feedback towards sub-national social policy: a comparison of popular support for social health insurance in urban China.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 23(3), 350–371.Google Scholar
Huang, Xian. 2015. “Four worlds of welfare: understanding subnational variation in Chinese social health insurance.” The China Quarterly 222, 449–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Xian, and Kim, Sung Eun. 2020. “When top-down meets bottom-up: local adoption of social policy reforms in China.” Governance 33(2), 343–364.Google Scholar
Landry, Pierre F. 2008. Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party's Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landry, Pierre F., Lü, Xiaobo and Duan, Haiyan. 2018. “Does performance matter? Evaluating political selection among the Chinese administrative ladder.” Comparative Political Studies 51(8), 1074–1105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Hongbin, and Zhou, Lian. 2005. “Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China.” Journal of Public Economics 89(9–10), 1743–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Yanan, Kanbur, Ravi and Lin, Carl. 2019. “Minimum wage competition between local governments in China.” Journal of Development Studies 55(12), 2497–94.Google Scholar
Lin, Jin, and Tussing, Dale. 2017.“Inter-regional competition in retirement benefit growth: the role of the sub-national government in authoritarian China.” Journal of Contemporary China 26(105), 434–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lü, Xiaobo, and Liu, Mingxing. 2013. “Public goods with private benefits: understanding local governments’ incentives in education provision in China.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, August 2013.Google Scholar
Malesky, Edmund, and London, Jonathan. 2014. “The political economy of development in China and Vietnam.” Annual Review of Political Science 17, 395–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Civil Affairs. 2003–2019. Zhongguo minzheng tongji nianjian (China Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook). Beijing: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Mok, Ka-ho, and Qian, Jiwei. 2019. “A new welfare regime in the making? Paternalistic welfare pragmatism in China.” Journal of European Social Policy 29(1), 100–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mok, Ka-ho, and Wu, Xiaofang. 2013. “Dual decentralization in China's transitional economy: welfare regionalism and policy implications for central–local relationship.” Policy and Society 32(1), 61–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ngok, Kinglun. 2010. “Social assistance policy and its impact on social development in China: the case of the minimum living standard scheme.” China Journal of Social Work 1, 35–52.Google Scholar
Ngok, Kinglun. 2013. “The recent social policy expansion and its implications for inter-governmental financial relations in China.” Australian Journal of Public Administration 72(3), 344–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ngok, Kinglun, and Hu, Xianglian. 2018. “Dibao zhengce zhixingzhong de biaotiliangjian: jiyu fanfu lidu shijiao de jieshi” (The paradox of “greater generosity but lower coverage” in the implementation of dibao). Zhongguo xingzheng guanli 398, 70–75.Google Scholar
Ngok, Kinglun, and Huang, Genghua. 2014. “Policy paradigm shift and the changing role of the state: the development of social policy in China since 2003.” Social Policy and Society 13(2), 251–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, Haoran, Ngok, Kinglun and Li, Chenfeng. 2018. “Zhongguo difang zhengfu yanglao baoxian zheng jiao shifou cunzai zhu di jingzheng?” (Does “race to the bottom” exist in the Chinese local governments’ pension insurance levy?). Guanli shijie 2, 103–111.Google Scholar
Qian, Jiwei, and Mok, Ka-ho. 2016. “Dual decentralization and fragmented authoritarianism in governance: crowding out among social programs in China.” Public Administration and Development 36, 185–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratigan, Kerry. 2017. “Disaggregating the developing welfare state: provincial social policy regime in China.” World Development 98, 467–484.Google Scholar
Shi, Shih-Jiunn. 2012. “Social policy learning and diffusion in China: the rise of welfare regions?” Policy and Politics 40(3), 367–385.Google Scholar
Shi, Shih-Jiunn. 2017. “Social decentralization: exploring the competitive solidarity of regional social protection in China.” Journal of Asian Public Policy 10(1), 74–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 2014. “Social assistance under capitalist authoritarian rule: two management models in Chinese municipalities.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 44(3), 500–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J., and Hu, Yiyang. 2012. “Welfare, wealth and poverty in urban China: the dibao and its differential disbursement.” The China Quarterly 211, 741–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
State Council. 1999. “Chengshi jumin zuidi shenghuobaozhang tiaoli” (Regulations on guaranteeing minimum subsistence for urban residents). Decree No. 271 of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.Google Scholar
State Council. 2014. “Shehuijiuzhu zanxing banfa” (Interim measures for social assistance). Decree No. 649 of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.Google Scholar
van der Kamp, Denise, Lorentzena, Peter and Mattingly, Daniel. 2017. “Racing to the bottom or to the top? Decentralization, revenue pressure, and governance reform in China.” World Development 85, 164–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 2014. “Second generation fiscal federalism: political aspects of decentralization and economic development.” World Development 53, 14–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Chenggang. 2011. “The fundamental institutions of China's reforms and development.” Journal of Economic Literature 49(4), 1076–1151.Google Scholar
Yu, Hong, Wang, Li and Zhao, Zhirong Jerry. 2018. “Central–provincial sharing of financial responsibilities for China's social safety-net.” Public Money and Management 38(6), 427–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, Xufeng. 2014. “Mandate versus championship: vertical government intervention and diffusion of innovation in public services in authoritarian China.” Public Management Review 16(1), 117–139.Google Scholar
Zhu, Xufeng. 2016. “Dynamics of central–local relations in China's social welfare system.” Journal of Chinese Governance 1(2), 251–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, Xufeng, and Zhang, Youlang. 2016. “Political mobility and dynamic diffusion of innovation: the spread of municipal pro-business administrative reform in China.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 26(3), 535–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, Xufeng, and Zhao, Hui. 2018. “Recognition of innovation and diffusion of welfare policy: alleviating urban poverty in Chinese cities during fiscal recentralization.” Governance 31(4), 721–739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, Xufeng, and Zhao, Hui. 2021. “Experimentalist governance with interactive central–local relations: making new pension policies in China.” Policy Studies Journal 49(1), 13–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, Yapeng, and Xiao, Diwen. 2015. “Policy entrepreneur and social policy innovation in China.” Journal of Chinese Sociology 2(1), 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar