Chinese Journal of Sociology

“Paired Competition”: A New Mechanism for the Innovation of Urban Local Governance

HUANG Xiaochun, ZHOU Li

2019, 39(5): 1-38.

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In recent years,the focus of Chinese urban base level government has experienced a fundamental shift from economic growth to public service and social management. While economic growth can be quantified more easily,public service and management can not,thus performance evaluation has to be largely dependent on "impression-based results". Under such circumstance,a new mechanism of so-called "paired competition" is put in place to pair superior vertical lines of authority (tiao) with subordinate horizontal levels of local government (kuai) on voluntary bases. Pairs will compete with other pairs in areas of public services and social management. Paired competition can facilitate close cooperation between tiao and kuai, promote innovations and create quick "impression-based results". However,the mechanism also generates incentives for excessive innovations and reluctance of adopting good practices by rival pairs. The case study detailed here is the "Community Analysis Tools" promoted by the Civil Affairs Department of District A in a major Chinese city. In addition to examine the organizational and operational logic of paired competition,this study also compare paired competition with the traditional methods of "tournament competition" and "special-purpose project system".

From Minefield Authority to Local Government: Formation and Evolution of Tiao-Kuai Relation in China's Oil Field Regions

CAO Zhenghan, WANG Ning

2019, 39(5): 39-79.

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A significant character of the Chinese state governance is the structure of tiao (vertical lines of authority from top down) and kuai (horizontal levels of authority of the territorial government) and the constant adjustment of the relationship between the two. Varies studies on state governance in China either neglect this character or frame the discussion in the way of central vs local authority. This brings us to an unanswered question of how to explain the formation and evolution of tiao-kuai relationship. This paper argues that the conflicts between the tasks undertaken by tiao and kuai are largely responsible for shaping the relationship. Often the central government assigns subordinate authorities multiple tasks that conflict with one another,a factor that dictates the degree of integration between tiao and kuai. The data collected from six oil field citiessupport the argument that the less compatible of the tasks between the two,the more clashes occur. Our study confirms the multi-task principal-agent theory. The tiao-kuai structure is an attempt by the central government to resolve the paradox between centralized authority and effective local governance while trying to achieve multiple development targets. It is hoped that this study will stimulate further theoretical discussion of the inherent contradiction of a centralized government and a better understanding of the institutional arrangement of the tiao-kuai structure.

The Republican System Ideal and the Limitation of Public Opinions: Hume's State Theory

XU Zhiguo

2019, 39(5): 80-105.

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Discussions on Hume's social political theory have been dominated by two major perspectives of civic humanism and natural jurisprudence, which focus on Hume's theory of justice and civic virtues but pay little attention to his theory on state.This paper looks into the work of political theorists such as Istvan Hont and Paul Sagar to explore the important position of Hume's state theory and clarify the internal logic of a nation's evolution from barbaric state to civilized state. Hume's state theory contains both normative and empirical dimensions. In the normative sense, the political system can be categorized into barbarism and civilization. In Hume's view, only a civilized government can maintain social stability, freedom and prosperity. Its ideal form is a scientifically designed republican government. In the empirical sense, the legitimacy of the state rests upon public opinions and its formation has to be an innate historical process, and has to change along with changing economic and social conditions. Hume, on one hand, points out how the evolution of commerce, custom and reason affects public opinions and promotes the change of politics from barbarism to civilization; however, on the other hand, due to the prevalent superstition among people, he also suggests that "prudent politicians" should take an incremental approach to promote justice and freedom in order to maintain authority and avoid possible risks.Hume deals with the contradiction of the twin dimensions with his division of mankind into two classes of "abstruse thinkers" (philosophers) and "shallow thinkers"(the bulk of mankind).

From Mauss to Lévi-Strauss: “Mana” and the Translatability of Practical Ideas

XIE Jing

2019, 39(5): 106-126.

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"Mana", an emblematic magic notion, constitutes a classic case in social anthropology. The different interpretations of mana by Marcel Mauss and Claude Lévi-Strauss represent a shift of theoretical paradigm from the French school of sociology to the structural anthropology. On the surface, the division between Mauss and Lévi-Strauss seems to be the translatability of "Mana". To Mauss, mana is non-translatable and, more to the point, it shouldn't be translated into modern scientific language at all. For Lévi-Strauss, mana is not only translatable but also must be interpreted in modern scientific language. This paper begins its inquiry with Mauss and Hubert's General Theory on Magic by treating mana as a "practical idea". It is argued that beneath the disagreement over the translatability, there are deeper divisions involving social ontology, definition of objects of social sciences, and relationship between theoretical and practical logic. The paper suggests that the conventional view concerning the relationship between Mauss' holism and Lévi-Strauss' structuralism is an oversimplified argument that ignores the fact that Lévi-Strauss not only disagrees with Mauss about the relation between "social reality" and "symbolism", but their quintessence as well.

A Sociological Inquiry of the Way of “Filial Piety”

ZHAI Xuewei

2019, 39(5): 127-161.

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The idea of filial piety and its practice have paramount importance in Chinese history and culture. A sociological inquiry is called for to study the social practice of the idea, that is how the Confucian concept was internalized to become integrate part of the Chinese heart and mind. The origin of filial piety is about devotion to one's elders, however, under Confucianism it is regarded as a path to fulfill morality of benevolence. Filial piety thus becomes an actionable manifestation of benevolence, a thought-action process.In this process, the sociological significance is reflected in the notion of "Heaven and Men", an explanatory framework derived from the meaning of "repay the gift of life and return to the origin" embedded in filial piety.The reciprocal parent-child relation and its emotional roles are operated within this framework. At its core, the parent-child relationship is unequal and this inequality is what causes the guilty conscience and the forever gratitude towards one's parents.Filial piety encourages the Chinese to focus their entire social life on things like family continuity, social harmony, ethical behaviors, local networks, authority supremacy, and etc.,in order to promote social bonds in society.It can be said that filial piety is among the most pivotal and stable traditions in Chinese society. Although its dominance may have declined since the New Culture movement, to this day filial piety maintains the same center part of social fabric in China.

An Analysis of Educational Test Scoring Standard Variation from the Perspective of Control Theory: A Case Study of History Subject Grading of College Entrance Examination in Province X

HU Yuehan

2019, 39(5): 162-183.

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The existing literature on national governance models has focused on the analysis of long-term and stable public organizational processes between different levels of governmental and social organizations. In contemporary China, a considerable part of the organization and implementation process in public services relies on the cooperation among different local governmental institutions and social groups. This leads to short-term and unstable relations in the process. This study applies the perspective of control theory to analyze the relationship between the three parties of the principal (government), the management (offices in charge) and the implementation agency (organizations) in the case of college entrance examination grading standard variation in Province X. The study finds that even though the relationship presents a highly correlated governance model, the three parties do not belong to the same bureaucracy and lack administrative oversight within the process, thus increase uncertainty in negotiation and maneuver, resulting in two issues. First, often the principal and management have divergent views on goals. With the advantage of controlling incentive distribution, the principal is able to involve itself in inspection and evaluation of policy implementation, and therefore maintains the ability of arbitrary intervention in the process. Second, the implementation agency's behavior is constantly influenced and modified by the feedback from the principal and management and vice versa. In the process of continuous feedback and adjustment, the three parties gradually reach their own shared understanding of policy implementation that becomes the cause of local variation of test grading standard. This paper suggests that unstable public organization process is an important area of study on contemporary Chinese governance. Control theory can be further explored as an analytic tool and strategies of various social forces in gaining organization control should also be investigated in depth.

Employment Intermediaries in Chinese Labor Market: From the Perspective of Social Capital

XIONG Ailun, SUN Xianhua, WANG Zijuan

2019, 39(5): 184-202.

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The impact of social capital on employment is a well-researched topic. However, there is little consensus over whether social capital brings definitive better outcomes. This paper places its focus on middlemen employment agents rather than on job seekers to examine the effects of social capital in labor market. We found that how well social capital can be utilized is often determined by the efforts of middlemen agents. Referral commissions are positively associated with the frequency of information distribution by agents but not necessarily result in better quality of recommended candidates. Contrary to the "social resource theory" proposed by Lin Nan, education level and self identified social status show limited impact. It implies that agents with high social status and rich resources do not necessarily share employment information along class lines. Further investigation into the extra steps taken by agents to help their clients indicates that if client and agent is introduced by a third party, it is more likely that for the reason of cost effective, extra steps are requested by clients to ensure better results since they are often obliged to compensate not just the agent but the third party as well.It is also shown that agents are more willing to take extra steps if clients have lower educational level than themselves. Also female job seekers are less likely than their male counterpart to use informal channels to find matching jobs. The study also finds that job seekers with lower expectation tend to look for work through networks. These results suggest that first, companies using referral commission for recruitment should consider other options of incentive to secure better quality of service from intermediaries. Second, instead of limiting research on the dichotomy of strong vs weak network, future studies need to pay more attention to the different combination of social ties in studying network effects. Finally, the psychological factors that influence the decision making process of job seekers should also be taken into consideration.

Reference Groups, Relative Position and Micro-Perceptions of Distributive Justice: A Comparative Analysis between Permanent Migrants and Floating Population in Chinese Metropolis

WANG Yuanteng

2019, 39(5): 203-240.

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By examining and comparing the specific logic of reference group selection and the effect of relative position of permanent migrants and floating population in Chinese metropolis, this paper reveals the mechanism of micro-perceptions of distributive justice from the perspective of social comparison theory. Three types of reference groups of homogeneous reference, origin reference and native reference are constructed for this study in order to answer the question of "to whom the reference is made". Also by using the contrast of satisfaction desirability and loss aversion, the study explores the psychological aspect of "how the comparison is made". To the former question, the finding indicates that in reporting distributive justice perception, hukou status is the institutional basis for reference dependence. Those holding metropolis hukou become the reference objects for permanent migrants, while floating migrants are more likely to treat all metropolis residents as one reference group. Origin reference groups are not selected by both permanent and floating migrants as a reference point even after elements like social network structures, migration years, migration intergeneration, and etc. are taken into consideration.To the question of "how comparison is made", the study finds that the relative position gap creates an asymmetric effect among both permanent and floating migrants. Migrants with superior positions tend to show some egalitarian sentiment while those with lesser positions display "loss aversion", whose sense of dissatisfaction is much stronger than the satisfaction felt by the former group. The comparative analysis of this study has practical implications for the management of migrant population in Chinese metropolis.

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