{"id":27218,"date":"2018-12-21T17:06:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T17:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.journals.cambridge.org\/?p=27218"},"modified":"2019-01-08T14:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T14:48:00","slug":"judehowelljaneduckett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/2018\/12\/21\/judehowelljaneduckett\/","title":{"rendered":"Reassessing the Hu\u2013Wen Era: A Golden Era or a Lost Decade for Social Policy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Journalists, China-watchers and academics have fiercely debated the legacy of China\u2019s leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Some see the Hu\u2013Wen period (2002\u20132012) as a \u201cgolden era\u201d of rapid growth, while others portray it as a \u201clost decade\u201d for economic and political reform. But few observers have examined Hu and Wen\u2019s social welfare reforms \u2013 despite their unprecedented reach and their potential to improve for the lives of vast numbers of people. The Hu\u2013Wen administration introduced legislation to improve the working conditions of migrant workers, initiatives to facilitate the growth of a civic welfare infrastructure and policies to \u201cBuild a new socialist countryside.\u201d Their rural pensions, rural co-operative medical schemes and the abolition of agricultural taxes were key milestones toward improving the life of rural residents, and they for the first time in China\u2019s history established entitlements to social security across the whole population.<\/p>\n

A set of four new articles examines the politics of these important Hu\u2013Wen administration social policies. Delving into the processes behind these policies, as well as their outcomes, the papers show the complex interplay of actors, influences and calculations that shaped them, as well as both their successes and their limitations in reducing poverty and inequality.<\/p>\n

Jude Howell and Jane Duckett<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The following key articles are freely available until February 28, 2019:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Introduction by Jude Howell and Jane Duckett,\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741018001200<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. NGOs and Civil Society: The Politics of Crafting a Civic Welfare Infrastructure in the Hu\u2013Wen Period, Jude Howell, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741018001236<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. International Influences on Policymaking in China: Network Authoritarianism from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao, Jane Duckett, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741018001212<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Principle-guided Policy Experimentation in China: From Rural Tax and Fee Reform to Hu and Wen’s Abolition of Agricultural Tax, Guohui Wang, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741018001224<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Social Policy and Income Inequality during the Hu\u2013Wen Era: A Progressive Legacy?, Qin Gao, Sui Yang, Fuhua Zhai, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741018001248<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Journalists, China-watchers and academics have fiercely debated the legacy of China\u2019s leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Some see the Hu\u2013Wen period (2002\u20132012) as a \u201cgolden era\u201d of rapid growth, while others portray it as a \u201clost decade\u201d for economic and political reform. But few observers have examined Hu and Wen\u2019s social welfare reforms \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":27222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,11,6,8,4187,1,17,7],"tags":[610,581,15,256,2148,5222,55,5220,2276,83,235,407,344,2277,1957,5221],"coauthors":[5223],"class_list":["post-27218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-studies","category-history","category-humanities","category-law","category-literature","category-news","category-politics","category-social-sciences","tag-agriculture","tag-anthropology","tag-area-studies","tag-china","tag-chinese-history","tag-golden-era","tag-history-2","tag-hu-jintao","tag-humanities","tag-law-2","tag-literature","tag-politics-2","tag-social-policy","tag-social-sciences","tag-social-welfare","tag-wen-jiabao"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27218"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=27218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}