The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion

Chinese Dual-Pension Regimes in the Era of Labor Migration and Labor Informalization

Bibliographic Data

ID2317447
AuthorsYujeong Yang (0000-0003-4193-4267, SUNY Cortland, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume49
Issue2
Pages147-180
Publication date2021-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3292 • E-ISSN: 1552-7514
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0032329220924557
OpenAlexW3031759238
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Why do some Chinese local governments include informal workers in their welfare systems while others exclude them? This article argues that local officials attempt to balance multiple, conflicting, top-down career-evaluation criteria by developing different inclusion mechanisms. The central mandate to build an inclusive welfare regime incentivizes local officials to embrace welfare "outsiders" (informal workers and nonlocal workers). However, other top-down policy goals and the locally defined citizenship ( hukou) system disincentivize the full integration of outsiders. Faced with this political dilemma, local officials have strategically incorporated different types of outsiders into their welfare regimes. Their strategies depend on local labor market structures-specifically, the extent to which informal workers overlap with nonlocal workers. This hypothesis is tested using an original data set derived from thirty-one Chinese provinces, covering the period between 2005 and 2015, as well as two rounds of national-level survey data. Findings suggest that recent Chinese welfare expansion has ironically consolidated, even exacerbated, regional inequality

Citizenship · Dilemma · Economics · Labour economics · Mandate · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Welfare · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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