Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:00:59.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Delegation and Then Intervention”: The 2009 Decision to Create the New Rural Pension

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Eun Kyong Choi
Eun Kyong Choi*
Affiliation:
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea. Email: echoi@hufs.ac.kr.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reviews the decision-making process behind the creation of a new rural pension between the early 2000s and 2009. It finds that although policymaking was initially delegated to the bureaucratic level and hence involved a protracted bureaucratic struggle, the issue was resolved by a fiat imposed by top leaders rather than by bureaucratic compromise as a bureaucratic politics model would suggest. I call this policymaking process “delegation and then intervention.” Although the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MOLSS) persistently argued in favour of creating the new rural pension, the Ministry of Finance obstinately objected to it. This study finds that when bureaucratic organizations are in conflict because of their core beliefs, rather than resource allocation, they are less likely to reach a consensus. Faced with a prolonged bureaucratic deadlock, top leaders decided in favour of the MOLSS policy initiative, thereby adopting a progressive measure that would provide a completely subsidized basic pension for the rural elderly.

摘要

本文是针对从 2000 初开始持续到 2009 年, “新型农村养老保险的施行” 这一公共政策制定过程的研究。研究发现初始阶段是在官僚层进行委任, 并伴随着官僚组织间严重的意见分歧。虽然这一政策制定过程中展示了官僚政治模式, 但这项政策的产生并不是官僚间妥协的产物, 而是主要依据最高领导层的决定。笔者将这一政策制定过程叫做 “先委任后介入” 模式。中国劳动和社会保障部是主张要施行新型农村养老保险, 但同时财政部一直很反对。这不是官僚组织间的资源分配, 而是针对信念出现意见分歧时, 协商会变得更难的主张也同样适用于这个案例。官僚组织间的意见分歧导致这一政策制定过程始终处于胶着状态, 最终因为最高领导层的介入, 使得偏向于劳动与社会保障部的政府决定建立有财政支持的, 包含基础养老金的新型农村养老保险制度.

Keywords

new rural pensionspolicymakingdelegation and then interventionChina新型农村养老保险政策决定“先委任后介入”中国
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 233 , March 2018 , pp. 64 - 84
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberbach, Joel D., Putnam, Robert D. and Rockman, Bert A.. 1981. Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Allison, Graham T. 1969. “Conceptual models and the Cuban missile crisis.” American Political Science Review 63(3), 689–718.Google Scholar
Allison, Graham T., and Zelikow, Philip. 1999. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Bendor, Jonathan, and Hammond, Thomas H.. 1992. “Rethinking Allison's models.” American Political Science Review 86(2), 301–322.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Thomas P., and Lü, Xiaobo. 2003. Taxation without Representation in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Burns, John P. 2007. “Civil service reform in China.” OECD Journal on Budgeting 7(1), 57–81.Google Scholar
China Development Research Foundation. 2012. Constructing a Social Welfare System for All in China. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chuang, Julia. 2014. “China's rural land politics: bureaucratic absorption and the muting of rightful resistance.” The China Quarterly 219, 649–669.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1967. Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
Duckett, Jane. 2003. “Bureaucratic interests and institutions in the making of China's social policy.” Public Administration Quarterly 27(1/2), 210–237.Google Scholar
Eaton, Kent. 2003. “Can politicians control bureaucrats? Applying theories of political control to Argentina's democracy.” Latin American Politics and Society 45(4), 33–62.Google Scholar
Geng, Yanbing. 2011. “Xinnongbao shishi liangdu tisu” (Accelerating the process of constructing the new rural pension), 21 shiji jingji baodao, 24 June.Google Scholar
Guo, Jinhui. 2009. “Zhongyang caizheng butie xinnongcun bili quanmian tigao” (The central government's subsidy to rural pensions increased nationwide), Diyi caijing ribao, 19 August.Google Scholar
Hammond, Daniel R. 2013. “Policy entrepreneurship in China's response to urban poverty.” Policy Studies Journal 41(1), 119–146.Google Scholar
Hammond, Thomas H. 1986. “Agenda control, organizational structure, and bureaucratic politics.” American Journal of Political Science 30(2), 379–420.Google Scholar
Hu, Junsheng. 2008. “Xinxing nongbao shengji zaixian” (Revitalizing the new rural pension). Zhongguo shehui baozhang 9, 10–13.Google Scholar
Huang, Jiahao. 2009. “Jianguo 60 nian lai nongcun yanglao baoxian zhidu de lishi tansuo” (History of rural pensions in the 60 years since the foundation of the PRC). Lilun daokan 11, 67–69.Google Scholar
Kornreich, Yoel, Vertinsky, Illan and Potter, Pitman B.. 2012. “Consultation and deliberation in China: the making of China's health-care reform.” China Journal 68, 176–203.Google Scholar
Lam, Willy Wo-Lap. 2006. Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era: New Leaders, New Challenges. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leisering, Lutz, Sen, Gong and Hussain, Athar. 2002. People's Republic of China: Old-Age Pensions for the Rural Areas: From Land Reform to Globalization. Manila: Asian Development Bank.Google Scholar
Leung, Joe C. B., and Xu, Yuebi. 2015. China's Social Welfare. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Li, Yang. 2012. “Laolinghua chongji shebao tixi: zhuanjia chengying cu laonianren canyu shehui” (Aging society affects social welfare system: experts encourage social participation of the elderly), Liaowang, 6 July, http://theory.people.com.cn/n/2012/0706/c49154-18457425.html. Accessed 13 January 2013.Google Scholar
Lieberthal, Kenneth G., and Oksenberg, Michel. 1988. Policy Making in China: Leaders, Structures, and Processes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Conglong. 2006. “Tansuo zhong de Zhongguo nongcun yanglao baoxian” (China's rural pensions under exploration), Nanfang zhoumo, 19 January.Google Scholar
Liu, Conglong. 2013. “Wo guo shehui yanglao baoxian zhidu de youlai yu fazhan” (Origin and development of the social pension in China). Tuanjie 4, 23–27.Google Scholar
Liu, Yuanli, and Rao, Keqin. 2006. “Providing health insurance in rural China: from research to policy.” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 31(1), 71–92.Google Scholar
Lu, Haiyuan. 2007. “Xinxing nongcun shehui yanglao baoxian shidian gongzuo diaoyan baogao” (Research report on local experiments in the new rural pension). In Zhongguo shehui baozhang luntan zuzhihui (Organizing committee of China's social welfare forum) (eds.), Jianli fugai chengxiang de shehuibaozhang tixi: di er jie Zhongguo shehui baozhang luntan wenji (Creating a Social Welfare System Covering Urban and Rural Residents: Paper Collection of the Second China Social Welfare Forum). Beijing: Zhongguo laodong shehui baozhang chubanshe, 472–481.Google Scholar
Lu, Haiyuan. 2008. “Jianli quan fugai de xinxing nongcun shehui yanglao baoxian zhidu” (Building the new rural pension with nationwide coverage). Nongcun gongzuo tongxun 2, 42–44.Google Scholar
Lü, Xiaobo. 2014. “Social policy and regime legitimacy: the effects of education reform in China.” American Political Science Review 108(2), 423–437.Google Scholar
Miller, Gary J. 2005. “The political evolution of principal–agent models.” Annual Review of Political Science 8, 203–225. Google Scholar
National Bureau of Statistics. 2009; 2014. Zhongguo tongji nianjian (China Statistical Yearbook). Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Bureau, National Taxation. 2008. Zhongguo shuiwu nianjian (China Taxation Yearbook). Beijing: Zhongguo shuiwu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Ngok, King-Lun, and Huang, Genghua. 2014. “Policy paradigm shift and the changing role of the state: the development of social policy in China since 2003.” Social Policy and Society 13(2), 251–261.Google Scholar
Nicholson-Crott, Sean. 2005. “Bureaucratic competition in the policy process: a framework for understanding bureaucratic competition.” Policy Studies Journal 33(3), 341–361.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, Guy B. 1981. “The problem of bureaucratic government.” Journal of Politics 43(1), 56–82. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qin, Zhongchun, et al. 2007. “Nongcun yanglao baoxian jianshe de jinpoxing, fazhan xianzhuang yu zhengce jianyi” (Urgency of building rural pensions, development situation, and policy recommendation), Zhongguo jingji shibao, 13 April.Google Scholar
Research Team of China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute. 2007. “Nongcun jiben gonggongfuwu xianzhuang yu wenti” (Current situation and problems of rural basic public service). Gaige neican 35, 4–7.Google Scholar
Research Team of the MOLSS. 2007. “Guanyu Suzhou shi jianli fugai chengxiang jumin shehuibaoxian zhidu de diaocha” (Research on Suzhou city's creation of social welfare institutions covering urban and rural residents). Jingji yaocan 28, 26–31.Google Scholar
Research Team of the State Council Development Research Centre. 2007. “Nongcun shehui yanglao baoxian zhidu jianshe de jinpoxing, fazhan xianzhuang yu zhengce jianyi” (Urgency, development situation, and policy recommendation for creating rural pensions). Jingji yaocan 26, 15–25.Google Scholar
Rural Social Security Bureau of the MOHRSS. 2012. Xinxing nongcun he chengzhen jumin shehui yanglao baoxian zhengce yu shijian (Policy and Practice of New Rural and Urban Resident Pensions). Beijing: Zhongguo laodong shehui baozhang chubanshe.Google Scholar
Shi, Shih-Jiunn. 2006. “Left to market and family again? Ideas and the development of the rural pension policy in China.” Social Policy and Administration 40(7), 791–806.Google Scholar
Shirk, Susan L. 1993. The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. 1985. “Human nature in politics: the dialogue of psychology with political science.” American Political Science Review 79(2), 293–304.Google Scholar
Spence, David B. 1997. “Agency policy making and political control: modeling away the delegation problem.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 7(2), 199–219.Google Scholar
Sun, Zhijun, Gongbin, Yu and Donghui, Di. 2006. “Zhongguo nongcun shehui baozhang fazhan silu yanjiu” (Ideas on developing social welfare for the rural sector in China), http://sbs.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/diaochayanjiu/200806/t20080619_47237.html. Accessed 28 October 2014.Google Scholar
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan. 2015. “A unique pattern of policymaking in China's authoritarian regime: the CCP's neican/pishi model.” Asian Survey 55(6), 1093–1115.Google Scholar
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Liao, Xingmiu. 2017. “Concentrating power to accomplish big things: the CCP's pishi system and operation in contemporary China.” Journal of Contemporary China 26, 297–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterman, Richard W., Rouse, Amelia A. and Wright, Robert L.. 2004. Bureaucrats, Politics, and the Environment. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald. 1998. The Political Economy of Dictatorship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, Dianguo. 2002. “Nongcun yanglao baoxian gongzuo de huigu yu tansuo” (Retrospection and exploration of rural pensions). Renkou yu shenghua jiyu 5, 23–27.Google Scholar
Zhao, Dianguo. 2008. “Jiji tuijin xinxing nongcun shehui yanglao baoxian zhidu jianshe” (Actively promoting the establishment of new rural social pensions). Jingji yanjiu cankao 32, 13–18.Google Scholar
Zhao, Litao, and Lim, Tin Seng. 2009. China's New Social Policy: Initiatives for a Harmonious Society. Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Zhu, Rongji. 2011. Zhu Rongji jianghua shilu (Records of Zhu Rongji's Speeches), Vol. 4. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhu, Xufeng. 2008. “Strategy of Chinese policy entrepreneurs in the third sector: challenges of ‘technical infeasibility’.” Policy Sciences 41, 315–334.Google Scholar