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Contracting Welfare Services to Social Organizations in China: Multiple Logics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2022

Yuanyuan Qu Open the ORCID record for Yuanyuan Qu [Opens in a new window] ,
Jude Howell  and
Regina Enjuto Martinez
Yuanyuan Qu*
Affiliation:
School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
Jude Howell
Affiliation:
Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
Regina Enjuto Martinez
Affiliation:
Department of International Development, King's College London, London, UK
*
Corresponding author: Yuanyuan Qu, email: yuanyuan.qu@muc.edu.cn
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Abstract

As part of a broader direction of welfare and governance reforms, China has launched a policy to contract welfare services out to social organizations. Scholars have explored the implementation of the policy in a few socioeconomically advanced cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. In this article, we examine how local governments lacking nongovernmental services suppliers or resources for contracting respond to the policy. We developed a framework of multiple logics to analyse services contracting in a county-level city in eastern China. We found that local officials follow three logics in implementing the policy: to meet the central state's targets, to balance policy outcomes and risks, and to stimulate a more participatory society. This generates a mix of policy behaviour, including entrepreneurialism, welfarism, innovation, risk-sharing and collaboration. We thus argue the interplay of the logics determines the local policy process of services contracting in China.

摘要

摘要

作为其福利改革和治理转向的一部分，中国政府制定并实施了购买社会组织服务的政策。学者们探究了该政策在社会经济发达或政策试点地区——如广州、深圳和上海——的实施。本文将目光投注于非政府服务力量发展较晚、政府购买资源相对不足的地区，探究这些地方的基层官员对自上而下的政府购买政策的应对。研究发现基层官员的政策行为体现了三种逻辑，分别为实现中央目标、平衡政策成果与风险、以及催生更具参与性的社会；据此产生的是一系列具有企业家性质、福利主义、创新、风险共担、合作性的政策行为的混合。文章因此提出国家、官员制度和社会逻辑的互动形塑了政府购买社会组织服务的基层实践。

Keywords

services contractingwelfare reformsocial organizationspolicy implementationthe Chinese policy process购买服务福利改革社会组织政策实施中国政策过程
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 253 , March 2023 , pp. 123 - 140
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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