Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Reform of China's Household Registration System

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

This award satisfies Division B, Title V, Sec. 543 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-6, enacted on March 26, 2013). The project asks the question: given the challenges to providing social welfare, why do some non-democratic local governments expand welfare provision while others do not? The project will examine how incentives for national and international economic competitiveness interact with local political conditions and the resulting impact on social welfare in the world's largest non-democracy. The research addresses issues that affect domestic policy-making and the foundations of political stability in China. Access to social welfare in China is dependent on household registration status. For the last fifty years, the household registration system has divided every city's population into two classes: those with access and those without. The national government began a national campaign in 2003 to make the system more equitable, but some local governments, which fund social welfare, resisted. Local governments prefer not to distribute welfare to a greater number of the urban population because this allows them to keep wages low and maintain China's comparative labor advantage. Competition across Chinese localities for economic investment leads to expansion in social welfare, potentially increasing wages and urban-rural integration for China's lowest paid workers. Reforms to China's welfare system may dramatically reduce China's low-wage labor pool, increasing the costs of production, thereby increasing the cost of China's cheap exports. This impacts U.S. economic interests in two ways. First, the reforms could increase the costs of China's exports, greatly increasing costs to China's trading partners. Second, reforms aim to increase China's competitiveness for investment, suggesting a new and changing environment for American investors. Better understanding China's domestic politics is important for US security interests as well. Only in-depth, informed fieldwork will illuminate the true consequences of reforms for China's global competitiveness. The research design combines qualitative case studies with statistical analysis of an original, large-N dataset of all China's municipalities. The project's intellectual merit is linked to three critical areas. First, it expands understanding of social welfare regimes by exploring a new welfare regime in an authoritarian setting. Globally, social welfare states are under pressure to limit welfare benefits so as to advance economic interests; this is even more likely in developing, authoritarian settings. Second, this research will enhance understanding of the relationship between labor market manipulation and social welfare. Finally, this research will expand understanding of the meaning of citizenship and the rights of citizens in an important developing, authoritarian country. The broader impacts include several contributions. Findings from this research will be presented at conferences, data collected will be made publicly available, and two graduate research assistants with specialization in legal studies will be trained in qualitative data collection.