Understanding the Mechanism of Social Stratification in Contemporary China

This study develops a “ power generation theory” to explain the mechanism of social stratification in contemporary China.The author argues that in the process of marketization and reform of decentralization and profit-sharing , public power generates “ rent-seeking ability” while it exerts as redistributive power.Rent-seeking ability plays a role in social stratification in a different way that redistributive power has been taking , and power elite incumbents are able to use rent-seeking ability to gain private interests . Meanwhile , marketability also has an effect on social stratification in so far as the market mechanism counts .Thus, the basic institutional arrangement of socialist market economy determines that redistributive power, rent-seeking ability , and marketability co-constitute the dynamic basis of social stratification.The hypotheses about income inequality based on the proposed theory are well supported by a sampling survey data collected in Wuhan in 2003.The research findings suggest that the “ power generation theory” offers a better explanation than the previously dominant “ power transition theory” and “power persistence theory” for the phenomena of elite circulation reproduction in Contemporary China.

刘欣；

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