Fixating on Political Order

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-56
Author(s):  
Jennifer Pan
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Economic Liberalization ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
Welfare Policies

This chapter provides background on the origins and evolution of Dibao, as well as basic information on the Dibao program and Dibao in the context of China’s other social welfare policies. The chapter traces the evolution of Dibao and illustrates its changing relationship with political order. Dibao originated as a solution to the problem of urban poverty, which the Chinese regime saw as motivating protest and unrest during economic liberalization. However, as the nature of social mobilization changed, so too did China’s conceptualization of political order and its strategy to pursue it. Instead of a means to achieve modernization, political order became an end in itself. The Dibao program evolved into a tool for controlling specific individuals deemed to pose a future threat to the Chinese regime.

scholarly journals Income, health, and social welfare policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. e127
Author(s):  
The Lancet Public Health
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Welfare Policies

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

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Yu Guo ◽  
Alex Jingwei He ◽  
Fei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
The Social ◽  
Developmental Policies ◽  
Policy Arena

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.

Neighbourhood effects in cross-Atlantic perspective: A longitudinal analysis of impacts on intergenerational mobility in the USA and Germany

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junia Howell
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Longitudinal Analysis ◽  
Intergenerational Mobility ◽  
Neighbourhood Effects ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Cross National

Research in the USA provides evidence that neighbourhood conditions affect intergenerational mobility. However, what remains unclear is the extent to which the US context is unique in producing this influence. To examine this question, the present study directly compares neighbourhood effects on intergenerational mobility in the USA versus those in Germany – a country whose housing market and social welfare policies differ significantly from those in the USA. Results provide a blueprint for conducting cross-national neighbourhood effects studies and illuminate how the nature and severity of neighbourhood effects are nationally specific. These findings underscore the importance of considering how broader political contexts shape neighbourhood effects on intergenerational mobility – a consideration that has implications for proposed policy interventions.

scholarly journals States as laboratories: The politics of social welfare policies in India

India Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajeshwari Deshpande ◽  
K. K. Kailash ◽  
Louise Tillin
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Welfare Policies

scholarly journals New Patterns in China’s Rural Poverty

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-240
Author(s):  
Shi Li ◽  
Peng Zhan ◽  
Yangyang Shen
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Poverty Rate ◽  
Absolute Poverty ◽  
Relative Poverty ◽  
Household Expenditures ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Chip Data ◽  
Positive Effects

The purpose of this chapter is to understand the structure of rural poverty in China. On the basis of CHIP data for 1988, 1995, 2002, 2007, and 2013, the authors analyze poverty trends and the structure of poverty, comparing the recent period to earlier periods. Factors that raise household income, factors that reduce the need for household expenditures, and other factors related to China’s poverty alleviation goals are considered. The analysis finds that although the absolute poverty rate continued to decline, the poverty gap and relative poverty increased after 2007. An analysis of the reasons for poverty reveals some positive effects of the rural social welfare policies; however, health problems among the elderly, among children below the age of 15, and among disabled adults continued to be a key source of poverty.

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