Attitudes toward welfare spending in urban China: evidence from a survey in two provinces and social policy implications

Changing attitudes towards government responsibility for social welfare in China between 2004 and 2014: Evidence from three national surveys

“…Results from the 2004 and 2009 surveys included in this study support these findings but, by 2014, hukou status lost its significance. The 2014 survey results are in line with He et al (2020), who found that migrants and local residents largely hold similar views regarding responsibility for welfare provision, and with Yang et al (2019), in that rural respondents held more supportive views of government responsibility for welfare provision than did their urban peers.…”

“…The study finds increased support for government responsibility for welfare provision. This confirms that the traditional description of Chinese society as emphasising self-sufficiency and familial obligation in welfare provision may no longer explain current public opinion (He et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2019) and that the expansion of services and entitlements generated positive feedback through spill-over effects into people's attitudinal patterns (Im & Meng, 2016). Furthermore, this study finds that motivations for welfare attitudes have changed substantially from 2004 to 2014, significantly reducing differences in attitudes across important social cleavages and institutional divides in Chinese society.…”

“…Particular institutional arrangements have been identified by previous research as a crucial influencing factor in motivating welfare attitudes in China (Han, 2012;He et al, 2020;Huang, 2019). The household-registration system (hukou) is one of the most important institutional divides in China, entailing a sharp divide and unequal distribution of welfare resources between urban and rural areas, favouring urban residents in public goods and social service provision.…”

“…People will support the welfare state not only from self‐interest but also because they adhere to political principles and values constituting the foundation of the welfare state and its institutionalisation (Andreß & Heien, 2001; Arts & Gelissen, 2001; Jæger, 2006). Research on welfare attitudes in China has shown that perceptions of individual rights and personal social cognition are important drivers of welfare attitudes (He et al, 2020; Wu & Chou, 2017; Yang et al, 2019). Furthermore, Munro (2017) found that inequality aversion was the strongest and most important predictor of support for state provision of social welfare in China, concluding that ideology mattered most.…”

Riding the tiger of performance legitimacy? Chinese villagers' satisfaction with state healthcare provision

“…Moreover, my study is cross-sectional and does not include longitudinal data. As current President Xi Jinping has increased social control and continued social policy reform, these dynamics are likely to change, although recent research suggests that Chinese urbanites support further social policy expansion (He, Qian, and Ratigan, 2020). Nonetheless, this study speaks to a larger question of performance legitimacy and the role of expectations in sustaining underperformance.…”