Topic: Path Dependency and Welfare Regime Transformation In Greater China

Path Dependency and Welfare Regime Transformation in Greater China: A Literature Review Student’s Name Institution of Affiliation Course Date Path Dependency and Welfare Regime Transformation in Greater China: A Literature Review Greater China, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, has experienced a dramatic economic upsurge that has given rise to a rich and dynamic scholarly debate on the nature of its welfare states. Initial attempts to typify these dynamic regimes tended to rely on Western-based typologies, the most notable of which was that of Esping-Andersen (1990): the Liberal, Conservative-Corporatist, and Social Democratic regimes (Li, L1). A rapid agreement was soon reached, though, that these models, formulated on a post-industrial Western democratic background, were not ideally suited to the East Asian setting. These regimes did not just easily fall into the high decommodification of the Social Democratic model, the status-preserving corporatism of the Conservative model, or the sheer survival safety nets of the Liberal model. It is this analytical dead end that spawned a specifically, region-specific, Productivist Welfare Model (Holliday, 2000; Holliday and Wilding, 2005). According to this model, social policy in East Asia is not a semi-autonomous realm of rights-based redistribution. Still, it is subordinated in a systematic way to the overriding, state-driven goal of economic growth. In such a system, social rights are negligible, and in many cases, they are explicitly associated with the productive economic activity of an individual, and investment in human capital development as a necessary part of national competitiveness is justified (Li, L3). One of the most crucial prisms through which the development, continuity, and modern stresses of these productivist welfare models can be viewed is that of path dependency. Based on historical institutionalism, the path dependency theory indicates that legacies of historical institutional networks and policy decisions develop self-reinforcing policy feedback loops, which limit and influence subsequent policy decisions, and make radical changes in the direction of the established one hard and expensive. It is well explained by Dorothy J. Solinger (2005) through her insightful piece on the Chinese unemployment policy that institutional decisions made at an early stage of a series can preclude other such decisions in the future, establishing a course that is hard to turn back (p. 84). Such trajectories are stored by increasing returns mechanisms, where switching costs to an alternative institutional route will be prohibitively high in the long run and by the strong force of existing norms, vested interests, and cognitive frames. This is a complicated relationship between this powerful conception of path dependency and the current welfare regime transformation in Greater China, which will be discussed in this literature review. It will claim that, as much as the great historical tradition of the productivist model, based on a combination of Confucian familism and a developmental state ideology, has created a pathway so deep-rooted, the dynamics of globalization, demographic change, increasing inequality, and internal social forces are creating a lot of tension and triggering transformational, but path-dependent, adaptation. 2. Historical Premises of the Productivist Path In order to understand the forceful nature of path dependency in the welfare context of Greater China, it is important to dig into the historical heritage of the productivist path initially. The model is premised on the strong blend of a developmental state ethos and strong-rooted Confucian social values that gave rise to a distinctive welfare logic that is still influential. The state apparatus responsible for the developmental state paradigm is typified by the strategic priority given by the state apparatus to economic growth as the main priority of policy. This paradigm does not view social policy in terms of a right of citizenship or a means of decommodification but is used in the service of economic ends. It serves to increase human capital (this explains why it has invested heavily in education and, to a lesser degree, in basic health), preserve socio-political stability, which is key to investment, and a productive, flexible labour force (Li, L3). This is clearly displayed by the fact that the region has maintained a high level of spending on education, and East Asian systems have always existed at the top of international performance tests such as PISA, as other types of social protection, such as comprehensive unemployment benefits or generous universal pensions, were traditionally low or non-existent. The role of the state was not to safeguard the citizens against the market but to make them ready for it, as well as deal with the social dislocations that came with a sudden, state-driven industrialization. Supplementing and supporting this state-based economic orientation is the overwhelming impact of Confucianism. This ethical and philosophical system places emphasis on family duty, filial piety, self-sufficiency, industry, and peace in society. This cultural construct has played a critical role in justifying a welfare system in which the care of the young, old, and the infirm is squarely left to the family unit, with the role of the state being played as a last resort in the case where the family has failed (Walker and Wong, 2005, as cited in Li, L3). This kind of familialism gave a political and practical rationale to the low role played by the state in the provision of welfare services. This productivist-familialist hybrid had two manifestations in Maoist China. The system of the iron rice bowl (danwei or work unit), which was used to offer cradle-to-grave welfare (housing, healthcare, pensions, and education) in urban areas, w...