Free movement of labor, free movement with social entitlements? How to avoid social policy becomi... more Free movement of labor, free movement with social entitlements? How to avoid social policy becoming a source of inequality for the internal migrant workers within the EU and in the P.R. China?
The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we wou... more The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we would see greater economic and social openness in China: the market was to be given a “decisive role”, unprofitable state-owned enterprises were to be made more efficient, corruption in the state and Party was going to be rooted out and greater transparency was going to be achieved in the judiciary and state machinery. Those were the key resolutions made at the Third Plenum of the 18th CCP Central Committee on 12 November 2013. Two years after this crucial meeting under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Matthias Stepan draws an interim balance. His conclusion: not only has party leader Xi Jinping consolidated his own power base, but he has also made it clear in which direction he intends to steer the country. Under his leadership, the Chinese Communist Party has implemented a large part of the reform agenda. Western hopes of a more open China have been dashed.
The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we wou... more The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we would see greater economic and social openness in China: the market was to be given a “decisive role”, unprofitable state-owned enterprises were to be made more efficient, corruption in the state and Party was going to be rooted out and greater transparency was going to be achieved in the judiciary and state machinery. Those were the key resolutions made at the Third Plenum of the 18th CCP Central Committee on 12 November 2013. Two years after this crucial meeting under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Matthias Stepan draws an interim balance. His conclusion: not only has party leader Xi Jinping consolidated his own power base, but he has also made it clear in which direction he intends to steer the country. Under his leadership, the Chinese Communist Party has implemented a large part of the reform agenda. Western hopes of a more open China have been dashed.
In the last three decades the structures and logic of providing social policies in the People’s R... more In the last three decades the structures and logic of providing social policies in the People’s Republic of China underwent decisive reforms. As a consequence of institutional and socioeconomic transitions, such as privatization, and rural to urban labor migration, the work-unit based social security system in urban areas and the family based systems in rural China were largely rendered dysfunctional. Against this background the question is, what types of social policies exist in contemporary China, what principles are underlying their governing and which actors are involved in their formulation, operation, and supervision. In this paper we proceed in two steps, in the first we discuss and specify the concept of welfare governance in order to provide a framework for the description and analysis of governing social policies, in the second part we discuss the applicability and usefulness of the concept to study the case of China as a single country case and in comparative perspective.
Vocational education and training (VET) is the Achilles' heel of the restructuring of the Chi... more Vocational education and training (VET) is the Achilles' heel of the restructuring of the Chinese economic model. With the “Made in China 2025” strategy, China wants to transform into an innovation-driven industrial nation. This can only be achieved with a highly qualified workforce. Reform of the VET system is long overdue. Only if China succeeds in establishing a system that can be adapted to the changing requirements of companies will the dream of its political leaders to make the country an industrial superpower materialise.
Over the last five years, there has been a major expansion in the coverage and territorial reach ... more Over the last five years, there has been a major expansion in the coverage and territorial reach of social programmes in China. Public social programmes are no longer a privilege of employees in cities but a de facto universal public good. At the heart of the reforms of China’s social security system is the establishment of social programmes for the rural Chinese and the urban irregularly employed. An example of the structure and relationship between the programmes is health insurance. Health insurance programmes for the aforementioned two groups are managed separately from one another as well as from the health insurance programme for the employees of free enterprises. Therefore, the special characteristic of the Chinese social security system remains its fragmentation, yet in a different form. While the previous disparity between the programmes for urban and rural Chinese has been narrowed down, regional differences persist and have allowed a new gap to open between individuals with an employer and those without. This fragmentation manifests in the diverging availability and quality of social services and the generosity of transfer payments.
Ever since the introduction of the national political programme of “Building a new socialist coun... more Ever since the introduction of the national political programme of “Building a new socialist countryside” (BNSC) in the early 2000s, renewed focus has been cast on how the Chinese government manages the gap between its rural and urban areas in the new millennium. Previous research has mostly studied the social and political consequences of the BNSC initiative without paying particular attention to its effects on public opinion. In this article, we present an analysis of the 2002 and 2008 waves of the mainland China subset of the Asian Barometer. Our results show a significant shift in the perceptions of the rural population in respect to how much impact government policies have on daily life. This shift brings rural perceptions more in line with those of the urban population in 2002. The paper concludes with the implications of our findings for the study of the relations between public opinion and public policy in China.
Free movement of labor, free movement with social entitlements? How to avoid social policy becomi... more Free movement of labor, free movement with social entitlements? How to avoid social policy becoming a source of inequality for the internal migrant workers within the EU and in the P.R. China?
The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we wou... more The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we would see greater economic and social openness in China: the market was to be given a “decisive role”, unprofitable state-owned enterprises were to be made more efficient, corruption in the state and Party was going to be rooted out and greater transparency was going to be achieved in the judiciary and state machinery. Those were the key resolutions made at the Third Plenum of the 18th CCP Central Committee on 12 November 2013. Two years after this crucial meeting under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Matthias Stepan draws an interim balance. His conclusion: not only has party leader Xi Jinping consolidated his own power base, but he has also made it clear in which direction he intends to steer the country. Under his leadership, the Chinese Communist Party has implemented a large part of the reform agenda. Western hopes of a more open China have been dashed.
The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we wou... more The announcements two years ago sounded ambitious, raising hopes in Western observers that we would see greater economic and social openness in China: the market was to be given a “decisive role”, unprofitable state-owned enterprises were to be made more efficient, corruption in the state and Party was going to be rooted out and greater transparency was going to be achieved in the judiciary and state machinery. Those were the key resolutions made at the Third Plenum of the 18th CCP Central Committee on 12 November 2013. Two years after this crucial meeting under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Matthias Stepan draws an interim balance. His conclusion: not only has party leader Xi Jinping consolidated his own power base, but he has also made it clear in which direction he intends to steer the country. Under his leadership, the Chinese Communist Party has implemented a large part of the reform agenda. Western hopes of a more open China have been dashed.
In the last three decades the structures and logic of providing social policies in the People’s R... more In the last three decades the structures and logic of providing social policies in the People’s Republic of China underwent decisive reforms. As a consequence of institutional and socioeconomic transitions, such as privatization, and rural to urban labor migration, the work-unit based social security system in urban areas and the family based systems in rural China were largely rendered dysfunctional. Against this background the question is, what types of social policies exist in contemporary China, what principles are underlying their governing and which actors are involved in their formulation, operation, and supervision. In this paper we proceed in two steps, in the first we discuss and specify the concept of welfare governance in order to provide a framework for the description and analysis of governing social policies, in the second part we discuss the applicability and usefulness of the concept to study the case of China as a single country case and in comparative perspective.
Vocational education and training (VET) is the Achilles' heel of the restructuring of the Chi... more Vocational education and training (VET) is the Achilles' heel of the restructuring of the Chinese economic model. With the “Made in China 2025” strategy, China wants to transform into an innovation-driven industrial nation. This can only be achieved with a highly qualified workforce. Reform of the VET system is long overdue. Only if China succeeds in establishing a system that can be adapted to the changing requirements of companies will the dream of its political leaders to make the country an industrial superpower materialise.
Over the last five years, there has been a major expansion in the coverage and territorial reach ... more Over the last five years, there has been a major expansion in the coverage and territorial reach of social programmes in China. Public social programmes are no longer a privilege of employees in cities but a de facto universal public good. At the heart of the reforms of China’s social security system is the establishment of social programmes for the rural Chinese and the urban irregularly employed. An example of the structure and relationship between the programmes is health insurance. Health insurance programmes for the aforementioned two groups are managed separately from one another as well as from the health insurance programme for the employees of free enterprises. Therefore, the special characteristic of the Chinese social security system remains its fragmentation, yet in a different form. While the previous disparity between the programmes for urban and rural Chinese has been narrowed down, regional differences persist and have allowed a new gap to open between individuals with an employer and those without. This fragmentation manifests in the diverging availability and quality of social services and the generosity of transfer payments.
Ever since the introduction of the national political programme of “Building a new socialist coun... more Ever since the introduction of the national political programme of “Building a new socialist countryside” (BNSC) in the early 2000s, renewed focus has been cast on how the Chinese government manages the gap between its rural and urban areas in the new millennium. Previous research has mostly studied the social and political consequences of the BNSC initiative without paying particular attention to its effects on public opinion. In this article, we present an analysis of the 2002 and 2008 waves of the mainland China subset of the Asian Barometer. Our results show a significant shift in the perceptions of the rural population in respect to how much impact government policies have on daily life. This shift brings rural perceptions more in line with those of the urban population in 2002. The paper concludes with the implications of our findings for the study of the relations between public opinion and public policy in China.
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Papers by Matthias Stepan