Promotion Tournament,Labor Market Tightening and Pension Generosity: A Comparative Public Policy Analysis of Pension System for Urban Workers in China (1997–2013)

Abstract

This article conducts a comparative public policy analysis of China’s generous urban worker basic pension system. It is commonly believed that Chinese local governments, which are motived by office-seeking incentives under decentralization, may foster economic growth at the expense of citizens’ social rights and thus “promotion tournament competition” comes into being. This article challenges this view by arguing that such competition can increase the generosity of social programs such as public pensions, especially in the condition of labor scarcity. This argument is supported by time-series cross-section analysis of 31 Chinese provincial units (1997–2013) using a novel indicator of the intensity of inter-locality competition. When the labor market tightens, workers can leave a locality to seek better compensation. Motivated by the promotion tournament competition to develop the local economy, which requires the issue of labor shortage to be addressed, local governments then provide generous local pension schemes to retain workers. Operating in a macroeconomic climate of labor scarcity, promotion tournament competition becomes an unlikely catalyst for welfare expansion in China.     

“多无一体”的困境:我国养老服务体系的一个理解路径

我国养老服务模式的特点是政府主导下的“多元一体”,即“多元”参与者从属于政府主导的“一体”。这一模式的背景是我国在快速老龄化的过程中,政府、市场、社会多元主体的“缺失”。因此21世纪初开始了政府主动发育市场和社会的“社会福利社会化”的过程。但是目前仍存在市场发育和社会发育的困境:市场困境的主要问题在于公共筹资的不足导致没有形成足够购买力的市场,以及公共资源的配置结构造成公平性欠缺;而社会困境的主要问题则在于政府发育出的社会仍有更多行政化的特点,而缺乏一定程度的独立性。足够的筹资和恰当的支付方式,以及一定程度的独立,是走出困境的关键。     

Parenthood and social policy preferences: A gender and time sensitive examination

Attitudes towards social spending and the welfare state have been characterised by one of the longest standing and widest gender gaps. Past research suggests that parenthood deepens this divide further. Yet, the exact relationship between parenthood and support for social policies – and the gendered nature of this process – has been difficult to establish because it can vary across welfare policy areas and the age of the children, which past studies, relying on cross-sectional data, has found difficult to unravel. Using panel data from the Swiss Household Panel, we examine individual level changes in fathers’ and mothers’ views towards specific welfare state policies. We find that individuals’ support for social spending fluctuates at different stages of parenthood, and that mothers’ demands differ from fathers’ in relation to care related but not in terms of educational spending. This implies that parents are not a homogeneous group that parties could target with uniform electoral pledges. As a result, building widespread electoral support for expanding a broad range of social investment policies is likely to be challenging in a context where, first and foremost, self-interest appears to drive (or depress) individuals’ support for specific welfare state policies.     

Basic Social Security and Welfare Governance in the Context of Equal Share of Public Services: A Study Based on the Telephone Interview of the Public in Zhejiang During 2014—2016

Based on three years’telephone interview data during 2014-2016, this paper made a study on the evaluation of the public in Zhejiang on the development of basic social security from perspectives of family income, health care and elderly care, and found that during the period the public’s evaluation on the basic social security continues to rise, the gap of the evaluation results between different groups is narrowed obviously, and the government grassroots organizations become the preferred channel of social assistance of vulnerable groups. But it also found that the development gaps among structures of basic social security and among different social groups still required attention. From the perspective of the theory of welfare governance, this paper argued that we should give full play to the unique function of the government, non-government, market, and informal organizations, and collaborate with those organizations to achieve the goal of equal share of the economic and social development results among various social groups.     

The Modernist Manifesto of Alva and Gunnar Myrdal: Modernization of Sweden in the Thirties and the Question of Sterilization

How can one judge the policies of Alva Myrdal in the Thirties? Alva Myrdal, one of Sweden's best-known feminists, suggested sterilisation in her proposed family policy during that decade. In the internationally reported intensive Swedish debate in the autumn of 1997 on the Swedish forced sterilisation 1935–1975, Alva Myrdal's ideas played a major role. What picture of Alva Myrdal evolves out of that debate, and how does it stand in relationship to her own writings and the general discursive context of the Thirties? Chronocentrism is discussed.     

Placing Welfare States: The Netherlands as a Crucial Test Case

Typologies categorize welfare regimes either on the basis of their history or of their program characteristics or of their policy outputs. These three approaches often converge; but they do not always lead to the same conclusions. Reanalyzing data from Esping-Andersen's THREE WORLDS OF WELFARE CAPITALISM and elsewhere, we show that the Dutch welfare regime looks very different depending upon which basis for classification is used.     

Enter at your own risk: free movement of EU citizens in practice

The citizenship jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice has raised hopes for a more social Europe and triggered fierce debates about ‘social tourism’. The article analyses how this case law is applied by EU member state administrations and argues that they are actively containing the Court’s influence. As a result, rather than reconciling the logics of ‘opening’ and ‘closure’, they are heading towards an uneasy coexistence between free movement and exclusive welfare states. The argument here is illustrated with empirical evidence from Austria and Germany. Although both countries have taken different approaches to EU migrants’ residency and social rights, they produce similar effects in practice: increasingly, EU migrants are being tolerated as residents with precarious status without access to minimum subsistence benefits. Ironically, attempts to restrict residency rights have resulted in a temporary extension of EU migrants’ access to welfare in some instances.     

Permanency for Children in Foster Care: Issues and Barriers for Adoption

The desired outcome for children in foster care is to be reunited with their parents or to be permanently placed in a stable home. Federal and state legislation directs increased efforts by the social welfare and judicial systems in the United States to act in the best interests of the child and to identify and reduce barriers to permanency. Records from two county dependency courts in Florida were examined and caregivers surveyed to identify issues that prevented them from adopting the child in their care, and to identify services that would have enhanced the likelihood of adoption. The findings and their implications suggest that more integration of the two systems and support for concrete assistance to caregivers are paramount to facilitating adoption of children in foster care.     

Talking With Teen Parents,Hearing Young Families: (In)forming Welfare Reform Through Local Relations

This article explores an engagement process undertaken by Australian government social workers in one disadvantaged locality prior to the introduction of federal “teenage parent” welfare reforms. The focus of engagement was to learn about young parents’ experiences and aspirations, and to draw on this to inform policy implementation. Findings from engagement, and how engagement between social workers and young parents impacted local policy implementation are discussed, including the subsequent development of family friendly school options. The authors suggest that problematizing early parenting may itself be “risky,” and may obscure opportunities for building on the parental role as a source of inspiration.     

How much insecurity does security need? The discrepancy in assessing the sense of security of children,adolescents, and caregivers in institutions

When developing concepts for protecting children and youth who live in institutions, the perspective of the addressees has so far been insufficiently taken into account. This study aims to compare the assessment of children, youth, and caregivers in institutions with regard to group atmosphere, participation, and sense of safety. A combined quantitative and qualitative approach compares the assessment of children or youth and caregivers in child and youth welfare institutions, boarding schools, and clinics through the use of an online questionnaire and group discussions that address the topics safety, group atmosphere, and participation. The quantitative questionnaire included 233 youth age 14 years and up and 490 caregivers; 87 children or youth between the ages of 11 and 18 years and 73 caregivers were part of the qualitative group discussion. The questionnaire showed that youth and caregivers assessed the sense of security in principle as positive. With regard to group atmosphere and participation, youth tended to see these aspects in a positive light, but almost all youth-aged participants viewed these specific categories more critically than did the adult caregivers. The results from the group discussions make clear that children, adolescents, and caregivers often underestimate the real dangers. The existing sense of security in institutions may be the result of underestimating real dangers. Implications for the implementation of protection concepts are drawn.