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    24 November 2010, Volume 30 Issue 6
    Articles
    Institutional Changes, ClassStructure Transformation, and Income Inequality in China, 1978-2005
    Author1:Lin Thunghong;Author2: Wu Xiaogang
    2010, 30(6):  1-40. 
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    Abstract: Combining the institutional theories and the class analysis methodology associated with NeoMarxism, this paper advocates a perspective of “bringing back the class analysis” to the social stratification research in China. According to the important institutionrelated factors such as the household registration system (hukou), the work unit system (danwei), the administrator rank system, and private ownership of the means of productionfactors that have led to the inequality in a transforming China, this paper proposes a NeoMarxist, Chinese classification model that is based on the possession of different forms of productive assets. This new classification model has already empirically demonstrated its superiority over other types of classification systems. Research has concluded that the impact of the ongoing institutional transition in China on the social order being unequally rearranged is reflected in the corresponding changes of the ownership of different productive assets like labor force, capital, organization, skills, and authority, which has brought about a class structural transition as well as the expanded gap between the rich and the poor.

    From Elite Nationalization to National Elitism: A Historical Review on PRC’s System of Cadre Recruitment
    Yu Yang
    2010, 30(6):  41-64. 
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    Recruiting cadres from the elite is a major strategy of elite nationalization. During the period of totalism, our government tended to select cadres largely from the backbone classes of factor workers and poor peasants with the purpose of ensuring the stability of the newly founded country. Cadres were thus placed into classes. In the meantime, in order to promote cooperation with the elite, the government recruited a number of cadres from the nonproletarian elite, who were subject to “ideology reform” and “reeducation.” The government’s then strategies to deal with the elite who lived through the old society included appointing some to important posts, providing for some, or imprisoning some. Thus, elite nationalization was completed. During the period of market economy, there is a transformation from elite nationalization to national elitism, for basically only the elite are likely to be cadres. However, problems in appointing and appraising cadres have some negative impact on democratic politics and state governance. Therefore, it is essential to reflect on these problems when the nation adopts elitism.

    Workers’ Internal Differentiation and Action Strategies under Reform of StateOwned Enterprises
    Wu Qingjun
    2010, 30(6):  65-89. 
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    This paper analyses the employment statuses among the workers and their action strategies in the process of reform in a stateowned enterprise. The status inequality in the times of planned economy has extended to market economy. The analysis of the statuses of the workers in the stateowned enterprise has revealed four different interest groups: retirees from stateowned enterprises, permanent employees in peopleowned firms, contracted employees in peopleowned firms, and workers in collectivelyowned enterprises within the state category. In the face of market reform and in the same political context, these four groups have selected different action strategies that are subject to the four primary factors of status, survival pressure, competence for reemployment, and the institutional design.

    Market, Institution and Network: Three Explanatory Paradigms of Industrial Development
    Liang Bo;Wang Haiying
    2010, 30(6):  90-117. 
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    Industrial development has been an important issue in social science research. Three explanatory paradigms on this topic have emerged from the existing theories. They are the marketism paradigm represented by the neoclassic industry theories; the institutionalism paradigm represented by the historical institutionalism school and the organizational institutionalism school in economic sociology; and the networkism paradigm represented by the theories of networks and social capital. These theoretical paradigms take market mechanism, institution, policies in the industry, industrial networks, and social capital as the core explanatory factors for industrial development. Accordingly, in some sense, these paradigms have a transparent inclination of “marketdeterminism”, “institutiondeterminism”, and “networkdeterminism”, respectively.

    Where Efficiency Comes from: An Examination of the Development of PrivatelyOwned Enterprises in Wenzhou
    Li Pei
    2010, 30(6):  118-135. 
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    This paper focuses on the origin of the mechanism for the efficiency in running the privatelyowned enterprises that are after the “Wenzhou Model” since the inception of the open policy and reform. There have been two explanations for that—the organization’s internal management policy improvement or the supportive resources provided by the local 〖JP2〗government and the local market. This paper examines the power of each explanation in the enterprises of different sizes, and sees no competition between the two. Their respective applicability varies with varying sizes of the organizations. The paper also reports some new insights upon the property relationship of institutionalism, familymodel business management, rational business operation, and the actual impact of governmental support on the enterprises.

    Impacts of Individual Factors on Women’s Employment in Urban China:Comparison of 1995 and 2002
    Wu Yuxiao
    2010, 30(6):  136-155. 
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    It is well known that women’s employment has been decreasing since mid1990s in urban China. Using data from 1995 and 2002 Urban Household Income Surveys, this paper estimates the effects of education, family responsibility (marriage and children), and family economic status on women’s employment in urban China and their changes over time. It is found that, between 1995 and 2002, the positive effect of education on women’s employment decreased, whereas the negative effects of marriage and family economic situation increased. Compared with the situation in 1995, married women who enjoyed high household incomes in 2002 were more likely not to participate in the labor market, which suggests a transition in women’s employment decision making toward rational reasoning since they had the liberty to decide whether they would like to go for the paid work or stay at home. The author does not agree with the “discouraged workers” argument because laidoff women in lowincome families should be very likely to enter the secondary labor market rather than permanently retire from the labor force because of their loss of confidence for reemployment.

    A Study on the Attitudes toward the Immigrants by Urban Residents with Regional Disparities based on the 2005 National Comprehensive Social Survey Data
    Wang Jiashun
    2010, 30(6):  156-174. 
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    This paper provides a new perspective from urban residents for research on the immigrants who have settled in the city. Based on the 2005 National Comprehensive Social Survey data, the author constructed hierarchical linear models to analyze urban residents’ attitudes toward the immigrant influx. The results showed significant effects of the individuals’ social and economic features and city’s institutional milieu on the residents’ attitudes. This implies that, as a function of the household registration system, benefit distribution and psychological segregation between the urban residents and the immigrants may experience mutual transformation, which may obstruct the subsequent reform of the household registration system. In order to obtain a consensus on the reform, urban residents’ attitudes should not be ignored.

    Influence of the Internet on the Socialization of Han and Mongolian Chinese Teenagers
    Liu Baowei
    2010, 30(6):  175-201. 
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    This paper analyzes the extent to which the internet influences the socialization (aspects such as moral cognition, values, behavioral tendency, and interpersonal communication ability) of Han and Mongolian Chinese teenagers in remote areas, based on a sample survey of teenagers from two cities in Inner Mongolia. The results show that the internet has a significant influence on the socialization of Han and Mongolian Chinese teenagers without widespread adverse effects. In other words, the socialization of the teenagers who frequently use the internet is generally good. There is little difference found in the influence of internet globalization on Mongolian Chinese teenagers versus that of the internet on the socialization of Han Chinese teenagers. Overall, the influence of the internet on the socialization of Han and Mongolian Chinese teenagers will increase as they continue to use it. Teenager’s understanding of the internet directly affects what they do on the internet; that behavior directly affects what they do in real life; and how the internetusing teenagers influences other people in real life.

    MicroMechanism in the Formation of Systems and Trust:A Review of Fang Lijie’s “Formation Process of Institutional Trust”
    Zhao Deyu
    2010, 30(6):  202-220. 
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    This work provides a microbehavioral foundation for identifying the trust establishing mechanism from the perspective of the game theory, and tries to reinterpret the trust issue in the new rural cooperative medical system. Trust can be defined as the generalized and stable expectations on each side in a business transaction, a result of people’s rational choice when the interesttied party in a trading relationship is likely to utilize cooperative strategies to optimize benefits to all stakeholders. The key for trust to be established is for expectations to be continuously reinforced and stabilized through a number of trigger mechanisms. To account for the new rural cooperative medical system and its related issue of trust, many trigger mechanisms are believed to have played an active role in strengthening the feedback loop. Through the positive feedback from such trigger mechanisms as “persuasion and political mobilization”, “increased subsidy to special groups”, “creation of family accounts”, “higher reimbursement rates”, and “public sharing of information”, farmers have come to believe the medical insurance agency and health service providers. To them now, the promise in the cooperative behavioral strategies can be expected and is trustable.

    Regional Variations in CommunityBased HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention: A Case Study of L County, Yunnan
    Yu Xiaoyan
    2010, 30(6):  221-241. 
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    Since the year of 2003, there has been a movement to practice communitybased HIV/AIDS intervention in highly affected regions in China. Large regional variations have been observed in practices and social outcomes. In this background, the paper selects a case, L County in Yunnan Province, to examine the system and practice factors that are associated with the treatment and prevention success in a local experience. This paper concludes that it is the optimal fit between the treatmentprevention system and the trust culture in the local ethnic groups’ relationships that has led to the L County success. Starting from here, the good doctorpatient relationship will nurture the village healthcare system to structurally and culturally bridge the formal treatmentprevention system and the local moral reality.