Chapter 5 Danwei system in China under the planned economy

• Danwei, a special type of organizations in China under the planned economy.– Multi-functions– Members highly dependent on their Danwei– Danwai attached to government organs

Bian Yianjie’s study

• Work and Inequality in Urban China (1994)– This is a study of the impact of work organizations on the social

stratification of urban workers in the People’s Republic of China. In a planned economy such as China’s, enterprises run the society (danwei ban shehui). This popular expression refers to a unique phenomenon in urban China: work organizations provide not only jobs and earnings but also a wide array of goods and services for employees and their families, and these goods and services include not only material rewards but also ideological and organizational incentives. In this book, Bian reveal the extent to which socioeconomic and political inequalities among Chinese urban workers are generated by their workplaces.

Contents of Bian’s book

• 1. structural segmentation and social stratification

• 2. structures and functions of work organizations• 3. Urban Employment: Policies and Practices• 4. The Chinese Version of Status Attainment• 5. Guanxi and social resources in job search• 6. Party membership• 7. Wages• 8. Collective consumption• 9. Segmentation and Inequality: conclusion

• Locating a workplace and finding a job are two distinct aspects of employment in China. For a prospective Chinese worker, it is more important where you are than what you are. Different processes occur when the individual gives priority to one aspect over another. Employment tends to be occupation-directed in Western industrial countries, as a result of specialized training and job-related income distribution……

• A different process applies to China. As described in the previous chapter, the allocation of labor in the Chinese planned system is workplace-oriented. For all urban youths, job hunting is directed toward finding a work unit, because working conditions, wage standards, fringe benefits, and access to housing and community resources are related more to workplace characteristics than to occupation. Also, entering the “right” work unit is a factor in eventually getting a more desirable job. Finally, a consistent bureaucratic bias in favor of the ownership of labor by the work unit has magnified the importance of the place of employment. Clearly, status attainment in urban China is not merely a question of occupational choice, but of who gets placed where in the work-unit structure.

Communist Neo-traditionalismwork and authority in Chinese industry

Andrew Walder• Some comments

– “The best, most insightful work I have ever read about the nature of authority, politics, and social structure in any communist country…[It] builds a coherent theory about the nature of communism that will be widely influential in comparative studies for a long time.” —Daniel Chirot

– “Here is a book that smashes and rebuilds. It smashes widely held ideas about communist bureaucracy, charisma, the convergence of industrial societies…It rebuilds our understanding of contemporary China—and of communist regimes in general—by showing how overlapping instrumental and personal ties, embedded in ideology and party organization, have reshaped Chinese industrial enterprises.. By placing Chinese experience firmly and lucidly in comparative perspective, Walder helps us rethink non-communist enterprise as well.”

—Charles Tilly

contents

• I. Communist Neo-Traditionalism: An introductory Essay

The Neo-Traditional Images of Communist Society

Communist Neo-Traditionalism as a Type-Concept

Social and Economic Dependence on the Enterprise

Political Dependence on Management

Personal Dependence on Superiors

The Institutional Culture of Authority

Precis of Analysis

• 2. The Factory as an Institution: Life Chances in a status society

The Transition to a Communist Pattern

Demographic Problems and the Administrative Response

Status Groups in the Labor Force

The supply and allocation of state sector jobs

Social and economic aspects of the employment relationship

Labor Mobility and dependence on the enterprise

Mobility and life chances in enterprise

The structural dependence of the enterprise community

3. The Party-State in Factory( 工厂中的党政合一制度）

The Party-state and the working class

The Political Organization of the factory

The “foreman’s empire” on the shop floor ( 车间里的包工头王国） The Chinese work group system

stalinist and Maoist mobilization: a comparison

• 4. Principled particularisim: Moral and political aspects of authority

• Social ties in ideological groups• From ideological orientation to principled particularism• Biaoxian and the flexibility of rewards and punishment• Worker responses to Moral-political authority• The substantive ambiguity of Biaoxian

• 5. Clientelist Bureaucracy: the factory social order（上下间施恩回报的体制）

• The divided workforce as a social fact

• The cliques and factions

• Instrumental-personal ties

• A comparative perspective

• 6. Maoist asceticism: the failed revitalization( 毛泽东式的禁欲主义）

• Maoism as revitalization movement 毛泽东复兴革命精神的运动

• Trends in real wages and living standards 实际工资与生活水平的趋向

• The inequities of wage austerity 限制工资政策所产生的不公平

• The emergence of indulgent patterns of authority 放纵式领导的出现

• The expanding scope of instrumental-personal ties 实用性私人关系的扩展

• The decline of work groups 工作班组作用的减弱• The unintended consequences of revitalization 复兴

革命精神运动预料之外的后果

• 7. From Asceticism to paternalism: Changes in the wake of maoism 从禁欲主义到家长统治– From asceticism to paternalism– The restriction of moral-political mobilization 对道德

政治动员方式的限制– Recasting the political standards 重新塑造政治标准– The redefinition of activism 对积极性的重新定义– The changing role of the party 党组织作用的变化– Continuities in the pattern of dependence 依附形式

的延续– The evolving institutional culture 发展中的制度文化

• 8. Theoretical Reflections 理论思考– The Structure of Communist Societies 共产党

社会的结构– Social stability and legitimacy in communist st

ates 共产党国家的社会稳定与合法性– The varieties of modern industrial authority 现

代工业权力结构的各种类型– The evolution of communist societies 共产党

社会的演进

• During the course of one year’s field interviews with émigré workers, staff, and managers, three arresting impressions were etched deeply into my mind. None of them had been a part of my original conception of the research. The first was the many-sided dependence of workers on their firms and superiors, something far more extensive than knowledge of formal political and economic institutions would suggest. The second was the central importance of stable vertical ties cultivated by party and management among a devoted minority of workers; these loyalties mingle the official with the personal and create a social cleavage widely reflected in the perceptions, interests, and political activities of workers. Third was a system of political incentives that appears on the surface to be based on political appeals and nonmaterial incentives, but which, in fact, is based on a deep-seated particularism in the allocation of material rewards and career opportunities.

-----page xii

• Communist Neo-Traditionalism as a Type-concept– Although communist neo-traditionalism is a term designed

to convey an image of communist society, it is also a type-concept designed for the comparative study of authority relations in industry. ……Communist neo-traditionalism is defined by the following elements. First, the employment relationship has several distinctive features, all of which revolve around the fact that employment is not primarily a market relationship, nor is the firm an economic enterprise in the capitalist sense. ……A second set of features pertain to the political and economic organization of the workplace. First, the enterprise is a focal point for the delivery of public goods, services, and other materials and social advantages that are not readily available from other sources. Second, the party, with its auxiliary organizations in the workplace, strives to eliminate informal political association of workers outside of official auspices, and because of its organized presence in workshops, it is able to do so under normal circumstances.

• Third, the discretion （判断力） of supervisors, relatively unrestrained by enforceable regulations and contracts, is quite broad, and they have considerable ability to influence the promotions, raises, and, more importantly, the degree to which a worker and his or her family my enjoy the many non-wage benefits and advantages potentially supplied by the enterprise. Each of these three elements reflects a relatively high-degree of dependence, compared with other types of modern industrial relations: economic and social dependence on the enterprise; political dependence on the party and management; and personal dependence on supervisors.

Chapter 6 Deviance

• deviance （越轨行为）– Deviance is behavior that a considerable number of pe

ople in a society view as reprehensible and beyond the limits of tolerance.

– As viewed by sociologists, deviance is not a property inherent in certain forms of behavior; its is a property conferred upon particular behaviors by social definitions. In the course of their daily lives, people make judgments regarding the desirability or undesirability of this or that behavior.

– No behavior is deviant in itself; deviance is a matter of social definition. The same behavior may be viewed as deviant by one group but not by another. Further, much depends on the social context in which the behavior occurs.

• Social control– Methods and strategies that regulate behavior

within society.– There are three types of social control

processes operating in social life: 1)those that lead us to internalize our society’s normative expectations; 2) those that structure our world of social experience; and 3)those that employ various formal and informal social sanctions.

• The social effects of deviance– Dysfunctions of deviance

• Should some individuals fail to perform their actions at the proper time in accordance with accepted expectations, institutional life may be jeopardized.

• Deviance also undermines our willingness to play our roles and contribute to the larger social enterprise.

– Functions of deviance• It may promote conformity. “One of the most effective metho

ds of keeping most people in line I to throw some people out of line. This leaves the remainder not only in better alignment but at the same time in fear of excluion……”(Edward Sagarin)

• Many norms are not expressed as firm rules or official codes. Each time the members of a group censure （责难） some act as deviance, they highlight and sharpen the contours( 轮廓） of a norm.

Third, by directing attention to the deviant, a group may strengthen itself. A shared enemy arouse common sentiments and cements feelings of solidarity.

Forth, deviance is a catalyst （催化剂） for change.

Social perspectives on deviance

• The structural strain perspective– Durkeim made his contribution to our understa

nding of deviance with his idea of anomie—a social condition I which people find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms that they experience as weak, unclear, or conflicting. He pointed out that during times of rapid social change, people become unsure of what I expected of them, and find it difficult to fashion their actions in terms of conventional norms.

• Robert Merton and structural strain.– Merton(1968) has built on Durkeim’s notions of anomi

e and social cohesion and linked them to American life. He says that for larg numbers of Americans, worldly success—especially as it finds expression in material wealth—has become a cultural goal. However, only certain cultural means—most commonly securing a good education and acquiring high-paying jobs—are approved for achieving success. There might not be a problem if all Americans had equal access to the approved means for realizing monetary success. But this is not the case. The poor and minorities often find themselves handicapped by little formal education and few economic resources.

– Merton identifies five responses to the ends-means dilemma, four of them deviant adaptations to conditions of anomie.

• Conformity （遵从） . Conformity exists when people accept both the cultural goal of material success and the culturally approved means to achieve the goal. Such behavior is the bedrock of a stable society.

• Innovation （革新） . In innovation, individuals hold fast to the culturally emphasized goals of success while abandoning the culturally approved way of seeking them. Such people may engage in prostitution, peddle drugs, forge checks, swindle （诈骗） , embezzle （盗用） , steal, burglarize （夜盗） , rob, or extort （勒索） to secure money and purchase the symbols of success.

• Ritualism （形式主义） . Ritualism involves the abandoning or scaling sown of lofty success goals while abiding compulsively by the approved means. For instance, the ends of the organization become irrelevant for many zealous bureaucrats. Instead, they cultivate the means for their own sake, making a fetish （偶像） of regulations and red tape （官样文章） .

• Retreatism （退却主义） . In retreatism individuals reject both the cultural goals and the approved mean without substituting new norms. For example, skid row alcoholics, drug addicts, vagabonds （流浪者） , and derelicts （被遗弃者） have dropped out of society; they “are in society but not of it.”

• Rebellion. Rebels reject both cultural goals and the approved means and substitute new norms for them. Such individuals withdraw their allegiance from existing social arrangements and transfer their loyalties to new groups with new ideologies. Radical social movements are a good illustration of this type of adaptation.

• The cultural transmission perspective– During the 1920s and 1930s, sociologists at the

university of Chicago were struck by the concentration of high delinquency rates in some areas of Chicago. They undertook a series of investigations and found that in certain neighborhoods delinquency rates were stable from one period to another despite changes in ethnic composition. They concluded that delinquent and criminal behaviors are culturally transmitted from one generation to the next. From this viewpoint, it is “natural” that youths living in high-crime areas should acquire delinquent life styles. Moreover, as new ethnic groups enter a neighborhood, their children learn the delinquent patterns from the youth already there. Hence, the Chicago sociologists contended that youths become delinquent because they associate and make friends with other juveniles who are already delinquent.

• Edwin Sutherland and Differential Association.– Sutherland said that individuals become

deviant to the extent to which they participate in settings where deviant ideas, motivation, and techniques are viewed favorably.

– The differential association theory provides a sophisticated version of the old adage that “good companions make good boys; bad companions make bad boys.”

• The labeling perspective– Proponents of the labeling perspective—sociologists s

uch as Edwin M. Lemert(1951,1972), Howard S. Becker(1963), and Kai T. Erikson (1962,1966)—make a number of points.

• First, they contend that no act by itself is inherently criminal or noncriminal. The “badness” of an act does not stem from its intrinsic content, but from the way other people define and react to it.

• Second, labeling theorists point out that we all engage in deviant behavior by violating some norms. Labeling theorists call these actions primary deviance—behavior that violates social norms but usually goes unnoticed by the agents of social control.

• Third, labeling theorists say that whether people’s acts will be seen as deviant depends both on what they do and on what other people do about it.

– Forth, labeling people as deviants has consequences for them. It tends to set up conditions conducive to secondary deviance –deviance individuals adopt in response to the reactions of other individuals. In brief, labeling theorists contend that new deviance in manufactured by the hostile reactions of rule makers and rule abiders.

– Fifth, people labeled deviant typically find themselves rejected and isolated by “law-abiding” people. Friends and relatives may withdraw from them.

– In sum, labeling theorists say that the societal response to an act, not the behavior itself, determines deviance.

• Forms of crime– Since crime is an act prohibited by law, it is th

e state that defines crime by the laws it promulgates, administers, and enforces. Thus an infinite variety of acts can be crimes.

– White-collar and corporate crime.• Crimes committed by relatively affluent persons, of

ten in the course of business activities. Included in white-collar crime are corporate crime, fraud, embezzlement, corruption, bribery, tax fraud （欺诈） or evasion, stock manipulation, insider trading, misrepresentation of advertising, restraint of trade （贸易管制） , and infringements of patents( 专利） .

– Organized crime• Organized crime refers to large-scale bureaucratic organizati

ons that provide illegal goods and services in public demand. Such crime is likely to arise where the state criminalizes certain activities—prostitution, drugs, pornography （色情文学） , gambling, and loan-sharking( 放高利货）— that large numbers of citizens desire and for which they are willing to pay.

– Violent crime• Violent crime against people: murder, rape, robbery, and ass

ault• Violent crime against property: burglary, theft, motor vehicle t

heft, and arson

– Victimless crime• A victimless crime is an offense in which no one involved is c

onsidered a victim. These crimes include gambling, the sale and use of illicit drugs, and prohibited sexual relationships between consenting adults (such as prostitution).

Chapter 7 social stratification

• Patterns of social stratification– sociologists call the structured ranking of

individuals and groups—their grading into horizontal layers or strata—social stratification.

– Open system: a stratification system in which people can change their status with relative ease.

– Closed system: a stratification system in which people have great difficulty changing their status.

• Dimensions of stratification– Karl Marx believed that the key to social

stratification in capitalist societies is the division between those who own and control the crucial means of production—the oppressing capitalist class or bourgeoisie—and those who have only their labor to sell—the oppressed working class or proletariat.

– Weber(1946) took a multidimensional view of stratification and identified three components: class (economic standing), status (prestige), and party (power).

• Theories of social stratification– The funcitonalist theory of stratification

• Davis and Moore argued that social stratification is both universal and necessary, and hence no society is ever totally unstratified or classless. In their view all societies require a system of stratification if they are to fill all the statuses comprising the social structure and to motivate individuals to perform the duties associated with these positions. Consequently, societies must motivate people at two different levels: 1)It must instill in certain individuals the desire to fill various positions, and 2) once the individuals are in these positions it must instill in them the desire to carry out the appropriate roles..

• Society must concern itself with human motivation because the duties associated with the various statuses are not all equally pleasant to the human organism, are not all equally important to social survival, and are not all equally in need of the same abilities and talents. Therefore society should have some kind of rewards that it can use as inducements for its members, and second, some way of distributing these rewards among the various statuses. Inequality is the motivational incentive that society has evolved to meet the twin problems of filling all the statuses and getting the occupants to enact the associated roles to the best of their abilities

• Conflict theory of stratification– To conflict theorists, inequality is not a

necessary part of the operation of societies; it is not based on a “shared-value consensus” or the “needs” of a society. It is the more powerful groups’ exploitation of the less powerful. The powerful determine which groups of people will fill which jobs and who will get what rewards.

• Lenski’s theory: a synthesis– Lenski tries to combine the two perspectives t

o produce a more accurate picture of stratification. He points out, in small, premodern societies, goods and services go to members on the basis of need. Power has almost nothing to do with social rewards. As a society becomes more modern, however, power does become important in defining the stratification system. Lenski holds that some inequality may actually help the functioning of a society.

Social mobility• Social mobility is the process that individuals or

groups move from one level (stratum) to another in the stratification system.

• Forms of social mobility– Vertical mobility: movement of individuals from one so

cial status to another of higher or lower statuses. – Horizontal mobility: movement from one social status t

o another that is approximately equivalent in rank.– Intergenerational mobility: a comparison of the social

status of parents and their children at some point in their respective careers.

– Intragenerational mobility: a comparison of the social status of a person over an extended period of time