TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding inequality in China
AU - Xie, Yu
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support for this research was provided by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 71373012, 71461137001).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - Drawing on past research, including my own, I set forth the following propositions: (1) inequality in China has been generated and maintained by structural collective mechanisms, such as regions and work units; (2) traditional Chinese political ideology has promoted merit-based inequality, with merit being perceived as functional in improving the collective welfare for ordinary people; and (3) many Chinese people today regard inequality as an inevitable consequence of economic development. Thus, it seems unlikely that social inequality alone would lead to political and social unrest in today’s China.
AB - Drawing on past research, including my own, I set forth the following propositions: (1) inequality in China has been generated and maintained by structural collective mechanisms, such as regions and work units; (2) traditional Chinese political ideology has promoted merit-based inequality, with merit being perceived as functional in improving the collective welfare for ordinary people; and (3) many Chinese people today regard inequality as an inevitable consequence of economic development. Thus, it seems unlikely that social inequality alone would lead to political and social unrest in today’s China.
KW - Attitude/ideology
KW - China
KW - economic development
KW - inequality
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U2 - 10.1177/2057150X16654059
DO - 10.1177/2057150X16654059
M3 - Article
C2 - 29854420
AN - SCOPUS:85031501658
SN - 2057-150X
VL - 2
SP - 327
EP - 347
JO - Chinese Journal of Sociology
JF - Chinese Journal of Sociology
IS - 3
ER -