TY - JOUR
T1 - Good Governance or Muddling Through? Layoffs and Employment reform in Socialist China
AU - Chiu, Stephen W K
AU - Hung, Eva
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - China's socialist employment system has undergone radical changes since the 1990s along with enterprise restructuring. Surplus workers have been laid off from state-owned enterprises in large numbers. China's policy program for the management of layoffs in this process of enterprise restructuring has been evaluated as an example of 'good practices in labor administration'. In this paper, we use original field data collected in Beijing, supplemented by additional information from recent Chinese studies, to assess this evaluation. We apply for this purpose the criteria often used by development agencies to evaluate governance systems, namely, accountability, transparency, consistency, participation, and information flow. Using these criteria as a yardstick, we argue that the Chinese experience in reforming their employment system through massive layoffs and re-employment is better characterized as a classic case of 'muddling through' rather than a shining example of 'good governance'.
AB - China's socialist employment system has undergone radical changes since the 1990s along with enterprise restructuring. Surplus workers have been laid off from state-owned enterprises in large numbers. China's policy program for the management of layoffs in this process of enterprise restructuring has been evaluated as an example of 'good practices in labor administration'. In this paper, we use original field data collected in Beijing, supplemented by additional information from recent Chinese studies, to assess this evaluation. We apply for this purpose the criteria often used by development agencies to evaluate governance systems, namely, accountability, transparency, consistency, participation, and information flow. Using these criteria as a yardstick, we argue that the Chinese experience in reforming their employment system through massive layoffs and re-employment is better characterized as a classic case of 'muddling through' rather than a shining example of 'good governance'.
U2 - 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2004.06.006
DO - 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2004.06.006
M3 - Article
SN - 0967-067X
VL - 37
SP - 395
EP - 411
JO - Communist and Post-Communist Studies
JF - Communist and Post-Communist Studies
ER -