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Palgrave Macmillan

Understanding Local Agency in China’s Policy Reform

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Xiaoye She

    1. Department of Political Science, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, USA

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  • Challenges the common perceptions and assumption that more state responsibility and re-centralization will result in convergence towards a more equitable and inclusive growth model in China
  • Examines the conditions and latitude of local agency under initial decentralization followed by increasing top-down re-centralization in China
  • Contributes to a growing literature of comparative political economy that seeks to examine the linkages between production regimes and welfare states

Part of the book series: Politics and Development of Contemporary China (PDCC)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Social Policy Reform and Local Agency in China

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 1-23

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

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 25-67

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

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 69-89

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

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 91-120

  6. Limits of Fragmented Universalism: Local Agency in Healthcare

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 121-154

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

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 155-196

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

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 197-239

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

    • Xiaoye She
    Pages 241-255

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 257-267
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Keywords

About this book

This book challenges the common perception or assumption that greater state intervention and re-centralization will result in convergence towards a more equitable and inclusive growth model in China. Instead of asking whether local agency matters, this project examines the conditions and latitude of local agency under initial decentralization followed by increasing top-down re-centralization. The central argument is that in response to common policy directives and pressures from above, disparities in local growth strategies have interacted with political institutions in generating “embedded” sub-national welfare mix models, with varying articulations of state, market, community, and family in Chinese welfare production. The bottom-up feedback effects from these embedded models have somewhat offset growing top-down pressure for re-centralization, contributing to persistent sub-national variations. This author contributes to a growing literature of comparative political economythat seeks to examine the political and economic logics of social policy in non-western and authoritarian political systems. 

Reviews

“The meticulously researched case studies in this book reveal the nuance and complexity of Chinese politics and the modern authoritarian welfare state. Xiaoye She challenges the outdated notion of an unchanging authoritarian welfare state that is all too often treated as an afterthought. Her refreshing focus on sub-national politics speaks to pressing debates about economic development paradigms. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand the realities of Chinese politics today, and authoritarian regimes more broadly.” (Sarah Wilson Sokhey, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Political Science, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, USA

    Xiaoye She

About the author

Xiaoye She is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at California State University San Marcos, USA.


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