A Study On The Industrialization Model And Labor Integration In Contemporary China In Comparative Perspective

This study is going to answer three closely related questions:firstly, in today’s newly industrialized countries, why some countries (or region) are able to integrate their working class into the political and economic systems fairly well as well as obtain long-term obedience of working class to the industry relationship and government authority, while other countries’performance in this aspect is not that satisfactory? Second, being one of the most active newly industrialized countries, what kind of labor integration trend China showed during the Reform and Opening-up? And what elements are influencing the practical effect of labor integration policy of China currently?For answering these questions, the researcher defined the concepts of labor integration and sate’s labor integrating capacity in the introduction part, and combined the three mainstream theories on labor integration. By doing this, the researcher found out that neither the attachment theory, nor the developmental state theory and historical institutionalism, could give a satisfactory explanation for the difference of labor integrating capacities between newly industrialized countries. Concerning this situation, the researcher tried to promote a substitutive theoretical hypothesis:the model of industrialization is the key influencing element of labor integrating capacities of newly industrialized countries. Based on this general assumption, the researcher formed a new theoretical framework in an attempt to seek out the motivation mechanism behind state’s labor integrating capacity.Then this study demonstrated the general hypothesis in given theoretical framework from two aspects in chapter two. Firstly, the researcher carried out a comparative study between those newly industrialized countries(region) that adopted authoritarian integration during the1906s to the1970s, including Korea、Taiwan、Brazil and Mexico. The results showed that although these entire countries crackdown the claims of right by labor class, Korea and Taiwan formed an efficient and obedient labor class during the period of time; on the contrary, Brazil and Mexico experienced the tensions between the political order and industrial relationship appeared as inefficiency of working class and labor struggle. Both being representatives of newly industrialized countries, Korea and Taiwan practiced a completely different strategy of industrialization from Brazil and Mexico. Then there came a question:Was there any relationship between the path of industrialization and labor integration capacity? We discovered that the Export-oriented industrialization model adopted by the two East Asian economic body greatly enhanced the market status of working class in newly emerging industries, improved their position in social income distribution, and strengthened their obedience to industrial relationship and political order. In contrast, the government-led import substitution strategy in Brazil and Mexico performed badly both in enhancing the social status of working class and improving general quality of labor force. Hence, It is the difference of industrialization model that contributed to the difference of labor integration capacities among these countries.After having carried out a comparative study on the influencing mechanism of labor integration capacity, this study came back to Chinese context and analyzed the performance of labor integration of China during the Reform and Opening-up. In chapter three, through the examination of contemporary Chinese working class’social status、production relationship、disposition and mode of collective action, we found out that China have been experiencing serious crisis of labor politics. The manifestations of the crisis appeared as the government’s inability of improving social status of working class and protecting their legal rights while keeping a higher-speed economic development, which led to mistrust of the working class towards the current industrial authority and increasingly frequent labor conflicts and worker’s protests. In brief, the labor integrating capacity of Chinese government is showing the risk of declining trend.Chapter four and five tried to seeking out the causes behind the crisis. In chapter four, the researcher revealed the China’s unique industrialization model and the influencing mechanism of its labor integration capacity. We discovered that the unique export OEM-oriented industrialization model led to the deterioration of the working class’ situation in the process of production and labor market, which further enhanced their discontent towards the authoritarian industrial relations and local government.The chapter five is an empirical study part. In this chapter, I chose the party construction of non-public enterprise as a case study, carefully analyzed the mode of operation and the actual effect of coordination system of the new labor-capital relationship. Through the study of the case, we found out that under the dual constrain of current industrialization model and the heritage of labor-capital relationship of socialist state, the operational logic and institutional aims of non-public enterprises’ party-construction didn’t able to go beyond the authoritative integration pattern which were created in traditional socialist period. In fact, the so called "innovation", to a great extend, is merely the "institutional overlay" of the existing Labor Union system. It is obvious that under the circumstance of current market environment in which the repressive force of capital is unusually strong, the so-called latest labor integrating policy was very limited in terms of performance in protecting the legal rights of workers.The chapter six pushed the discussion one step further. In this chapter, I discussed the way which industrialization model influenced china’s regime type. After review other important state theories, I proposed a substitute notion of "Patron-Cliental Developmental State" to describe the current relationship between the state and the labor in China.Finally, in conclusion part, I summarized the main findings of this study, and discussed the theoretical potentiality of the labor integration perspective in the arena of contemporary Chinese labor politics. And I also tried to give some policy recommendations on the effective way of strengthening labor integration capacity of China.