The government and urban labor reform in post-Mao China (1978-1995): Focusing on state-owned enterprises.

摘要

The thesis, first, describes post-Mao labor legislation and its outcomes. Second, it seeks to offer a causal interpretation of these outcomes. To interpret the process and outcomes of labor reforms from a state-centered perspective, the thesis suggests the following research questions. Why is it that the central government has been unable to bring about the society-wide development of a labor market? Why is it that the central government has had insufficient capacity to develop a national social security system (including health insurance, unemployment insurance, and housing) as a condition for the development of a flexible labor market? The main hypothesis is that despite labor reforms from 1978 to 1995, due to the limited autonomy and capacity of the central government, the labor reforms themselves have not brought about a radical change of employment system in state enterprises, as compared to rural reforms. The thesis depends mainly on documentary material. It combines a description with an attempt at explanation. The autonomy and capacity of the central government is high as evidenced in the turn-around of policies. However, there existed some limits to the autonomy and capacity of the central government, the most important of which was the fear of negative reactions of workers which would inhibit social stability--an issue to which central decision-makers gave top priority. The passive or negative attitudes of local governments and state enterprise managers also limited the autonomy of the central government. Another important limit was the weak unity of the central government, as demonstrated by debates over reforms. In addition, the central government's ability to implement supporting reforms for employment reform was limited. In particular, the limits to the capacity of the central government were its difficulty in creating an alternative system to the existing enterprise welfare system, independent of state enterprises, and its difficulty in limiting the potential new system to privileged workers without provoking negative reactions. There also existed the difficulty of creating a much larger "safety net."