Square pegs and round holes: extending existing typologies fails to capture the complexities of Chinese social policy
Square pegs and round holes: extending existing typologies fails to capture the complexities of Chinese social policy
Exploring the relationship between markets and social policy from a different angle, Dan Horsfall and Sabrina Chai examine the merits of applying the idea of the ‘competition state’ to China. They consider whether this typology fits the case of China and while they locate valuable observations that might illuminate and help to make sense of the relationship between macroeconomic and social policy, they also find that various factors – for example, the rural-urban divide, provincial versus state policies and the continuing development of ‘welfare’ in China, including the growing share of expenditure devoted to social policies – make China a complex case. This is exacerbated by gaps in the literature and gaps in the data. Their conclusion is that the future direction of social policy in China remains unclear, paving the way for more research on these crucial questions in the future.
Keywords: China, Competition state, Macroeconomic policy, Social policy, Rural-urban divide, Provincial, State, Welfare
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