Course coordinator= Chen Xi

Contributed by Chloe Yip yeah

Week1 General intro :
Major argument of the two sociological perspectives
- Functionalist perspective : every social institution has its own social function and
with other institutions they make the whole society work // there are natural laws of
social life and social change; these processes are inevitable and we have no choice
but to adapt to them
- Conflict perspective : conflicts, tensions, struggles between social groups eg social
stratification // all the processes of social change are essentially made and can be
altered by human actions
Transition
A demographic transition with dramatic decrease in fertility and mortality -> a
country with a very low population growth rate and accelerating population aging
An economic transition from a planned economy to a market economy -> lifted China
to the ranks of middle-income countries and changed the social structure
What are modernization thesis
Modernization theory:
Modernization is taken to be associated with evolutionary social change toward
industrialization, urbanization, differentiation of structure, specialization of function,
new forms of integration, and rationalization, etc.
Compatible = could achieve majority of them in the process of social development at
the same time
Conflict = different aspects could not adapt to social change with the same pace eg
economic growth vs income equality, democracy vs political stability, differentiation
vs integration
What factors affect model of modernization?
- Regional and international political environment
- Starting point of modernization
- Culture / history / tradition
What are the two models? What are the features? What kind of
modernization is China belong to?

First comer endogenous type (UK USA France)

- The motors of modernization are generated from internal society
- Receive little international pressure
- Long-term period of development

Latecomer exogenous type (China** Russia Japan Italy Germany)

Occurred as a national response to the demonstration, stimulation, challenge,
exploitation or even invasion by other countries
- Lower starting point, rapid change, and constrained by world inequality
Common features of late comers:
Prerequisites:
- Formation of a sovereign political entity
- Leaders favouring modernization control the political entity
- Modern, powerful and efficient centralized government
Problems
- Too ambitious : modernity vs traditionality, new tasks vs old government, the
model affects of the first comers
-

Imbalance of development : urban vs rural , west vs east

Conflicts : growth vs equality, democracy vs stability

W2 Pre-reform China 1949-1978

Big Push development strategy and its features?
- Investment share was high
- Most investment went to industry, and more than 80% of it was heavy industry
- Rapid industrial growth : 1952-1978 industrial output grew at an average annual
rate of 11.5%
- New industries created eg electric generating equipment, chemical fertilizers
- New government able to mobilize the fiscal and other resources to finance a
sustained investment effort
Why china chose this?
- Emulation of the soviet union
- Dependence theory of economic development
- -> developed countries produce industrial products and export them to developing
countries, which export primary goods. Periphery countries are dependent on the
core countries and are exploited
- Preparation for war
how to assess big push industrialization?
Heavy industrialization was inherently difficult
- Construction period long
- Key technology and equipment had to be imported
- Initial capital outlay was high
Consequences:
- Misallocation of resources
- Absence of incentives
- In terms of aggregate output, china achieved at best mediocre growth
- The living standard of Chinese even lower than the number suggests
Command economy system and its features
- China adopted from soviet union
- Ownership : government own all large factories, transportation, communication
enterprises. In countryside= agricultural collectives took over ownership of the
land and management of the farm economy
- Command-based resource allocation : planners issued command the assigned
production targets to firm and directly allocated resources and goods among
different producers. Prices had no role in resource allocation. Finances were used to
audit and monitor performance, not to drive investment decisions.
- Price distortion
- Micro-management of factories: govt and communist party control of the economy
through a hierarchical personnel system, CP control managerial career paths
Price distortion

Factory products were expensive, while farm products were cheap

- Compulsory procurement of grain from farmers, creating govt monopoly over key
agricultural goods that lasted more than 30 years

Consumer goods were expensive, while wages were low, albeit higher
than the return from farming
- Restriction on labor mobility from the farm to the city

Implications
- The state-owned enterprises were relatively profitable, despite inefficiency
- Modern tax system not necessary, since govt could raise more than 25% of GDP as

budgetary revenues
Divided era into subperiod
1949-52 economic recovery
1953-57 first five year plan
1958-60 great leap forward (great famine)
1961-65 economic recovery
1966-76 cultural revolution
1976-1978 post mao period
How to assess the legacy of socialist period?
- Economy stagnated at an extremely low level
- Everybody loser @ cultural revolution
- Deep willingness to experiment and reform
- Political stability was treasured
W3 eco reform
What is Chinese approach from socialist era to market economy? Whats
different between Chinese and bigbang approach (Europe and Russian)
The Chinese Approach to transition
- Pursued economic restructuring to stimulate the dynamism of the economy but
avoid political openness to avoid the collapse of the communist party
- Reform without a blueprint to cross a river by groping the stones
- Deng no matter it is a white cat or black cat, as long as it can catch mouse, it is a
good cat
Big Bang approach by Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union
- Stabilization, price liberation, privatization
- Expected J-curve effect on economic growth
The trinity of the traditional socialist economic structure
- A distorted macro policy environment
- Planned allocation system
- Puppet like micro management institution
Reforms
- Micro-management system reforms
- Resource allocation mechanism reform
- Macro policy environmental reform
How did the reform start (micro-management system reforms)

Started from countryside

- Terms of trade for farmers were too bad, farmers resisted the bargain
- Procurement targets were stabilized and slightly reduced
- Procurement prices were raised. Most importantly, prices for farm deliveries above
the procurement target raised dramatically
Countryside! Reform succeed first, dramatic and more profound
Importance of rural reform
Result
- By 1984 grain output had surged to 407 million metric tons, more than one third
higher than in 1978, and farmers actually reduced working days
- Enough grain for everybody in china, centuries of a china fundamentally short of
food were over

What are the effects of SOE reform in China? => required reading

W4 political change and social control in china

Key characteristics of chinas pol system and its shortcomings
Political institutions in PRC
- Communist party dominates Chinese political system : state council+ peoples
liberation army + national peoples congress + Chinese peoples political
consultative conference
- Highly bureaucratized
- Highly centralized
- Unstable institutions and importance of personal power eg Deng mobilized whole
country to speed up reforms in 1992
- Deep state penetration into society : rural : village level, city: to neighborhood
committees
- Horizontal control at all levels of administration : every level of government has
party committee which can monitor the government at that level
Challenges to CCPs legitimacy

Economic development
- Inequality
- Corruption
- Pollution

Nationalism
- A double-edged sword

Maintaining order
- Rural protests, labour unrest, environmental degradation and rampant corruption
- Growth and stability?
Chinas political adaptation strategy (How China react)

Coercion

Cooptation
- 35% entrepreneurs are red capitalists
- New talent needed for policy goals
- Chinese universities now main recruitment areas for CCP
- Three represents :
Represent development trends of advanced productive forces
Represent orientations of an advanced culture
Represent fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of people of China

Limit the flow of information

- Media
- Internet
- Prevent their use for political purposes, but make them available for leisure and
especially economic purposes
R reading = the political consequences of economic transition

Transition to a market economy erodes the institutional pillars of a

communist system

Modernization theory
- Economic development -> industrialization, urbanization, higher rates of literacy,
improved communications, value changes and creation of a middle class ->

democracy

Economic development and modernization may facilitate democratization,

but not directly and not always immediately
No simple correspondence between economic change and the timing of
democratization

Scholars looking at democratic transitions should pay more attention to

the actors who influence the process
No bourgeoisie, no democracy

Civil society
Definition: a societal structure composed of autonomous civic organizations located
between the state and the family

Civic groups under state policy guidance

Civic groups outside the state registration system

What difficulties do NGOs in china face?

Resources
- Relying on state resources -> maintaining autonomy?
- Receiving foreign funds -> political risk?
- Citizen donation -> trust?

Political control
- Only one association of the same kind is allowed to register within an
administrative region
- Dual supervision: find business supervisory unit; register with civil affairs
department at different levels
- Registration hurdles for many grassroots NGOs
What are NGOs response to state control?
- Register as businesses under minimal management structure with a high degree of
autonomy
- Secondary organizations eg university research centers
- Register as a subsidiary organization within an essentially dormant social
organization
- Local level registration
- No registry
W5 urbanization and migration
Whats urbanization?
Definition = refers to the process by which rural areas become urbanized as a result of
economic development and industrialization
Demographically = redistribution of populations from rural to urban settlements over
time
Same as urbanized area in china? No, differentiate these two concepts
City =/= urbanized area
City = administrative region, usually larger than urbanized area
3 types of cities = province-level municipalities, prefecture-level cities, county-level
cities
Urban population = number of people living in urbanized area
= people with urban hukou + permanent residents in urbanized areas
What are the major causes of urbanization in china?


Migration from rural to urbanized areas

Natural growth of the urban population when newborn babies outnumber

the deceased in urbanized areas

Urban reclassification and the changes in the definition of urbanized area

Whats hukou system (HRS)?
Household registration system
- Set up in 1958
- Divided population into rural and urban households
- Population of city = local residents / outsiders
- Differential treatments of rural and urban residents
- Serves as a benefit eligibility system, a tool of institutional exclusion than
controlling geographical mobility
Second generation migrants
- Rural laborers tend to exit the countryside for the first time in the young adult ages
- Has greater aspirations to stay in the city
- More awareness to discrimination and maltreatment
- Protests and riots
- Criminal involvement
Is it appropriate to abolish now
*** consequences of large scale rural to urban migration **
Not only confined to this week! Also population health, education,
stratification, crime problem also
W6 environment
What are the major causes of pollution in china?
- Roots = dynastic leaders consolidating territory and developing Chinas economy
exploited the countrys natural resources in ways that contributed to famines and
natural disasters
- Chinas Confucian roots helped spur policies that often promoted mans use of
nature, hindering the development of a conservation ethos
- Chinas economic boom has greatly accelerated the devastation of its land and
resources (rapid process of industrialization and urbanization as a late-comer type
of modernization)
How do the issue entrepreneur deal wit environmental problem in china
(R reading) => activity of mere professsionals and environmental NGOS
W7 social stratification and inequality***
What is social stratification?
- A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy
- Inequality refer to the uneven distribution of opportunities and rewards to
individuals and groups
- Stratification is, the structured inequality of entire categories of people

Four principles
- Characteristic of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences
- Persists over generations
- Universal but variable
- Involve not just inequality but beliefs
-

Social mobility
Moving from one strata to another
Intergenerational and intragenerational

How the max favour define SS?

What are the differences between functionalist and Marxist review on SS?
Functionalism

Cause
- Positions differ in functional importance and contribution
- Positions differ in requirements of talent, training and skills

Consequence
- Stratification ensures that the most appropriate people are selected for high reward
jobs
- Provides incentive for people to acquire skills and make more contribution

What to do
- Equal opportunity: create a level playground, and let people compete freely

Critical evaluation
- Why some positions considered functionally more important than others?
- Who decide what is important?
- Does meritocracy work? Does everybody get the same opportunities?
The Marxist Theory (conflict)

Cause
- Peoples relationship to means of production determines their social class
- Two classes bourgeoisie and proletariat

Consequence
- Society is divided into classes that have fundamentally antagonistic interests
- The capitalist class, as the ruling class, exploits, suppresses and deceives the
working class
- Class struggle is inevitable and will lead to destruction of the capitalist system

What to do
- Working class need to organize and fight
- Abolish private ownership of property, create the foundation of an egalitarian
society

Critical evaluation
- How to motivate people to do job efficiently? Require some system of unequal
reward?
- In capitalist societies the wages of workers have increased
- Between two classes a third class of petite bourgeoisie small owners, managers,
supervisors, and autonomous workers has emerged. Such a situation not going to
let capitalist system collapse
- All workers dont support the labor party, evident from the voting behavior pattern
of laborers in capitalist countries
Weberian Theory
-> cause: multiple factors
- economic: market position -> classes
- social cultural: prestige and life style -> status groups
- political : power differential -> parties and power groups
-> consequence
- proliferation of classes, with a new class of white collar employees, administrators,
technicians and civil servants, who are growing in number and importance
P.9 of L7 **************= differences
What factors contribute to SS in china, which group of ppl belong to lower
class in china

 Rural-urban divide in residential status

The hukou system
Rural residents do not enjoy many social benefits such as
housing and quality schools
Cadre-worker dichotomy in occupational classification
Cadre: government officials, managers
Better compensation and promotion opportunities
State-collective dualism in economic structure
State-owned work units
Collective work units
Revolution/Anti-revolution split in political
characterization
Red: with peasant or working class family background
Black: with landlord or capitalist family background
Now: Gini Coefficient 0.469
Five strata:
Upper, upper middle, mid middle, lower middle, lower
Lower = worker and farmers in poverty, unemployed
Comparing Functional and Conflict Theories
Whats social mobility? Differentiate intra generational mobility and inter
- Moving from one strata to another
- Inter generational and intra generational
Importance
- Ensure social fairness
- Ensure social stability
- Give people incentives to advance
Do you think Chinese ppl are more acceptable to social inequality? Why or
why not?
Article again.

W8 education opportunity and returns

Why theres an expansion in higher edu in 1999?
- In 1999, Facing 21 Century : Acting Plans for educational vitalization was released,
aiming to enlarge college enrollment so that the (gross) college enrollment rate
should reach about 11% by 2000 and should be close to 15% by 2010
Why
- 1997 Asian financial crisis
- Urban unemployment rate: 3 million high school graduates
- Boost domestic consumption
Since then
- Gross college enrollment rate reached 24.2% in 2009
- 35.4% in 2013
What are the consequences of educational expansion?

Educational attainment
- Significantly lowered university requirement of students academic performance on
College Entrance Exam
- Increased college opportunity after the expansion was not evenly distributed
among children with different social origins : senior high school has been the
bottleneck for continuing post-compulsory education

Changing volume of educated workers

Labor market returns to education

Sharp increase of the supply of college graduates within a short period tends to
devalue the college credential

W9 family and marriage

Identify reasons for rising divorce rate in china
- Laws governing divorce make the process easier than in the past
- Increase in working wives make leaving a husband more economically feasible
- Society attaches less stigma to divorce
- Many people expect more from marriage and are less ready to accept marital
problems
Why there is a phenomenon of left behind woman and how u evaluate it
- Education attainment A quality women and D quality men
- Imbalance sex ratio (raise kids for old age, first baby=female, can give one more
birth)
-
W10 population and health
How u evaluate one child policy? Need family planning policy?
- Proposed by a group of natural scientists
- Planners fascinated by system theory, control theory, and modern calculation tools,
but unexposed to the social science and humanistic perspectives
- Goals: reduce Chinas population to an optimal level of 600-700million in 100 years
- Adopted in 1979
- Fertility trend decrease
Different city different policy

Forced abortion and sterilization ->resistance and protests

1984 -> local discretion, fees and fines became major tools, positive incentives
introduced
- -> the economic argument
- Supporters:
Large population hinders economic growth and improvement of living standards
- Critics:
No evidence to suggest population growth impede economic (industrial) growth
- The cost of raising a child is much less than the potential future contribution the
person can make to the economy
- Example: Japan
- Area: 1/30 of Chinas size
- Population: 1/10 of Chinas size
-

- -> the environmental argument

- Supporters:
Population size has severe environmental impact
- Critics:
Japans population density is about 3 times as Chinas, but its environment is much
better
- Japans forestation rate: 66%, China: 12-15%
- Chinas energy consumption per GDP unit: 7 times of Japan,
- 6 times of U.S., 2.8 times of India
- Root cause of pollution is primitive technology and poor enforcement of
environmental laws
- Western countries experienced similar pollution before they strengthened the law
and invested in cleaning up

does it have to be coercive?

Supporters:
Without government coercion, people are unwilling to reduce fertility rates
Critics:
Economic development and urbanization, rather than family planning, are
responsible for the drop in fertility rate
- For example: HK: 1.04, Taiwan: 1.15
What are the causes and consequences of abnormal sex ratio?
causes
- One child policy
- Deep rooted in Chinese traditional culture son preference
- Practical demand for old age security
- Government family planning regulations
Consequences
- Poor-bare bachelor-poor cycle
- Drives human trafficking- women bought as brides, children for illegal adoption
- Sex ratios and crime rate connected
W11 Crime
How criminologist view crime?
The consensus view of crime
- There is general agreement among a majority of citizens on what behaviors should
be outlawed by the criminal law and henceforth viewed as crimes
- Acts which are considered as social harms should be outlawed to protect the social
fabric and members of society
- Substantive criminal law defines crime and punishment
- Criminal law is a function of beliefs, morality and rules
- Laws apply equally to all members of society
The conflict view of crime
- Criminal law reflects and protects established economic, racial, gendered and
political power and privilege
- Crime is shaped by the values of the ruling class and not the moral consensus of all
people
The interactionist view of crime
- This position holds 1. People act according to their own interpretations of reality 2.
People observe the way others react either positively or negatively and 3. People
reevalate and interpret their own behavior according to the meaning and symbols
they have learned from others
- Theres no objective reality. People, institutions and events are viewed subjectively
and labeled either good or evil according to the interpretation of the evaluator

- Crime is socially defined by moral entrepreneurs

P. 9 of L11
Defining crime
- Crime is a violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed by
the criminal law, which reflects public opinion, traditional values, and the viewpoint
of people currently holding social and political power
- The definition combine all perspectives
Whats difference between crime and deviant behavior
Criminology and Deviance
Deviant behavior departs from social norms
Three types of norms: William Sumner (1906)
Folkways: simple everyday norms based on custom, tradition, or etiquette
Mores: norms based on broad societal morals whose infraction would generate more
serious social condemnation
Laws: the strongest norms which are supported by codified social sanctions
Not all crimes are deviant and not all deviant acts are criminal
Criminologists study both criminology and deviance to understand the nature and
purpose of law
How to explain rising crime trend in china
Modernization theory
Anomie -> all crime
Early stages, all crime increase
Later stages, property crime increase, violent crime decrease
Civilization theory
Internalize social control to cooperate with each other with development
- Traditional crime rates esp interpersonal crime decrease
- Psychological problems and self-inflicted victimization increase
World system theory
Core, periphery, semi-periphery nations
- Crime as rebellion increase
- International organized crime increase
- All sort of crime in poor nations increase
Social constructionist
Historical events, policy changes, criminal justice system, public attitudes
*
-> rising trends of development indicators
- GDP per capita (opportunity)
- GINI coefficient (inequality)
- urbanization (migration, rural vs urban life)
- clearance rate (formalization of social control) (it declines but in fact indicates the
increasing effectiveness of police)
-> declining trends : % young males (demographic)
-> little change : economic growth rate (anomie)
Durkheims anomie theory: not supported (measures may be problematic)
Shelleys modernization thesis received partial support (in the early stage of
development, all crime increased; middle stage: pace slows down)
The inequality thesis (world system theory) and formalization of social control (social
constructionist) got more empirical support