Correction to: Poverty Reduction in A Transforming China: A Critical Review

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

God's Fundamentalist Politics: A Critical Review

The limits of metaphorical argumentation make it difficult for "Hierarchism and the Organizational Forms of Emancipatory Politics" to engage the real, practical problems facing progressive thought and action. As insightful as it often is, the absence of a positive program confines the discussion to a critique of "hierarchism" whose utopian admiration of resistance for its own sake undermines the possibility of a more sustained political argument.     

Good Enough Governance: Poverty Reduction and Reform in Developing Countries

The good governance agenda is unrealistically long and growing longer over time. Among the multitude of governance reforms that "must be done" to encourage development and reduce poverty, there is little guidance about what's essential and what's not, what should come first and what should follow, what can be achieved in the short term and what can only be achieved over the longer term, what is feasible and what is not. If more attention is given to sorting out these questions, "good enough governance" may become a more realistic goal for many countries faced with the goal of reducing poverty. Working toward good enough governance means accepting a more nuanced understanding of the evolution of institutions and government capabilities; being explicit about trade-offs and priorities in a world in which all good things cannot be pursued at once; learning about what's working rather than focusing solely on governance gaps; taking the role of government in poverty alleviation seriously; and grounding action in the contextual realities of each country.     

The Politics of Poverty Mis-targeting in China

Based upon a county level analysis, this article explores the complex processes of poverty mis-targeting in China and supplements the pre-existing literature with a bottom-up analysis. It argues that the rational calculations of key county leaders, shaped by a combination of formal and informal institutions, determine whether a county, irrespective of poverty level, competes for the title of “state-designated poorest county (SDPC).” This article also demonstrates that the interaction between formal and informal institutions is dynamic and subject to change. For future relevant research, this article suggests to analyze the practice of poverty reduction in a disaggregated manner by examining the interplay within and among different levels of government. Juan Wang, a Ph.D candidate in political science at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of “Going beyond Township and Village Enterprises,” Journal of Contemporary China, Issue 14, Volume 42, (February 2005), pp.171–181. The author is particularly grateful to Kellee Tsai for her valuable suggestions and support throughout this project. I am indebted to William Rowe, Mark Blyth, Wang Sangui and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. The Institute of Global Studies (IGS) of Johns Hopkins University receives my gratitude for its financial support of this project.     

我国财政民生资金支出的农村减贫效应及反贫困策略研究

从资金支出规模、资金支出结构和资金支出地区差异等三个角度分析了我国财政民生资金支出存在的主要问题,发现我国财政民生资金支出具有良好的农村减贫效应,但是财政民生资金支出结构还存在进一步优化的空间,政策在不同区域的效果差异显著。财政资金支持是实现精准扶贫达到全面脱贫目标的重要支撑,要从扩大民生支出规模、优化财政民生资金支出结构、建立财政民生资金支出的区域政策及财政民生资金支出与农村贫困相结合等四个层面推进反贫困事业的进行。     

Australia's Progress Undefined: A Critical Review of Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP)

Indicator systems to report on concepts such as sustainability and progress have become a key policy response by governments to concerns over environmental degradation and social and economic instability. When developed by a national bureau, public service imperatives suggest that concepts such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘progress’ should be addressed without offending the ideology of political actors. We offer a case study of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP) indicator system. The ABS has chosen to avoid offering a clear definition of what progress means, or a conceptual framework linked to a definition to explain the selection of indicators. ‘Progress’, however, is a socially defined, normative concept. Such concepts cannot be understood without reference to cultural and political processes. By seeking to avoid a perception of cultural or political bias the ABS has limited MAP's capacity to measure progress. We conclude with suggestions on how MAP might be improved.     

Waging War on Poverty: Poverty Trends Using a Historical Supplemental Poverty Measure

Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the March Current Population Survey, we provide poverty estimates for 1967 to 2012 based on a historical supplemental poverty measure (SPM). During this period, poverty, as officially measured, has stagnated. However, the official poverty measure (OPM) does not account for the effect of near‐cash transfers on the financial resources available to families, an important omission since such transfers have become an increasingly important part of government antipoverty policy. Applying the historical SPM, which does count such transfers, we find that trends in poverty have been more favorable than the OPM suggests and that government policies have played an important and growing role in reducing poverty—a role that is not evident when the OPM is used to assess poverty. We also find that government programs have played a particularly important role in alleviating child poverty and deep poverty, especially during economic downturns.     

改革开放以来我国收入分配制度改革的路径与成效——以公平与效率的双重标准为视角

通过梳理分配原则、分配格局、分配秩序等与收入分配制度密切相关的范畴的变迁历程,本文试图理清改革开放以来我国收入分配制度改革的基本脉络,并以公平与效率为标准来衡量其成效.研究表明,即使渐进、联动的收入分配制度改革导致了收入差距扩大和分配不公等不良现象,但是它对公平与效率增进的效果却是显著的.之所以出现如此成效,本文认为,坚持社会主义基本经济制度、市场化改革和政府的主导作用是根本原因.     

近十年以来中国乡村治理研究评述

近十年来在乡村治理研究领域,专家学者取得了丰硕的研究成果。研究成果主要涉及乡村治理的概念内涵、乡村治理的主体类型、乡村治理过程中的困境、乡村治理的对策等。乡村治理研究具有研究学科众多、研究者与实践者观点存在较大差异和研究成果出现严重的低水平重复等特点。     

Environmental Politics in China: An Issue Area in Review

This article takes a thematic approach to review the existing literature (in both Chinese and English) of environmental politics in the broad context of China studies. Examined themes include state and environmental governance, public awareness and environmental social activism, and environmental foreign relations. Findings and arguments are assessed with two important questions in mind: What differentiates the environmental arena from Chinese politics in general? What new insights into Chinese politics can be gained from case studies of environmental protection? Scholarship on environmental politics contributes not only empirical findings, but also critical challenges to the conventional knowledge and frameworks of Chinese politics.     

基于空间治理视角的城市贫困研究综述

相较于农村贫困,城市贫困是一种在空间上集聚的相对贫困,明晰它的空间特征、演变规律及影响因素等对于城市贫困的精准治理有着重要作用。为此,应用Citespace科学文献可视化工具,对Web of Science数据库中1052篇城市贫困主题的英文文献(1995—2019年)和中国知网(CNKI)数据库中2912篇相关中文文献(1981—2019年)进行分析,可从空间视角总结国内外城市贫困的研究现状及研究热点。结果表明:研究趋势上,国外对于城市贫困研究的关注度总体呈现上升趋势,而国内城市贫困的研究起步较晚、增长幅度较大,但在关注度上出现倒U型结构;概念上,从空间视角定义城市贫困多是认为居住区内的人们遭受了不同类型的"剥夺";研究内容上,城市贫困空间的测量与识别、时空动态变化、影响因素分析及大数据的应用等是国内外城市贫困的研究热点;贫困空间的演变及成因上,受居住、种族和阶级隔离等多种经济文化因素的综合影响,国外的城市贫困呈现由内及外的郊区化现象,而国内城市贫困空间演化较为复杂多变。     

Ecofeminism and Globalisation: A Critical Appraisal

Ecofeminism offers a useful yet limited framework through which to critique globalisation. Ecofeminism claims that the domination of women and of nature are intrinsically linked. Material ecofeminists, in particular, focus on the material conditions of women's lives locating the source of this twin domination in patriarchal capitalism. These ecofeminists provide insights into the impacts of globalisation on women but their analysis of the causes of globalisation are limited. They identify globalisation as an outgrowth of patriarchal capitalism, insisting on the primacy of gender as the determinant of social organisation and arguing that it is the dichotomy between production and reproduction that essentially defines capitalism. However, the rise of modern capitalism has been more convincingly described by those who focus on the domination of workers, the role of the market economy, and the enrolment of all sections of society through the propagation of the work ethic and the allure of consumerism.     

A Poverty of Imagination: Blaming the Poor for Inequality

Inequality in Britain today is now so deep that the top 10 per cent own 100 times more than the bottom 10 per cent, yet there is remarkably little public concern or anger about poverty. Indeed, compassion and concern for the poorest in society has actually declined in recent years due to the continued, and even increased, prevalence of the view that poverty is largely caused by laziness and lack of willpower, or is simply an unavoidable fact of modern life. Either way, many people tacitly accept that ‘the poor will always be with us’. Moreover, much of the British public believes that there are sufficient opportunities to succeed for those who try hard enough, and also that it is the middle class which actually struggles the most, economically or financially. These assumptions are highly conservative in their ideological and political implications because they limit public support for egalitarianism and extensive wealth redistribution from rich to poor.     

“经济贫困”还是“心理贫困”:幸福感悖论新解

家庭经济和外显自尊、自我接纳、被接纳感及其交互作用对大学生幸福感的影响同时存在;外显自尊与自我接纳是家庭经济与幸福感的中介变量;在农村与贫困生样本模型中,家庭经济、外显自尊、自我接纳的主效应显著;在城市与非贫困生样本模型中,家庭经济与外显自尊的交互效应显著。幸福感悖论之所以存在就是因为只考虑了经济与幸福感的关系而忽略了心理因素在其中的作用,心理贫困与经济贫困都会影响幸福感。