Economic Development And Social Inequality In China: An Analysis From The Hukou System Perspective

The present dissertation is aimed at picturing the hukou system as the most important leading-mechanism of China's socioeconomic development in the last sixty years, and analyzing its impact on resource allocation within the country's population.The hukou system, as social control mechanism, was regarded as 'economically conditioned' and 'economically relevant.' 'Economically conditioned' because it was internalized and adapted by China's leadership for economic development purposes; 'economically conditioned' because it produced a huge and increasing socioeconomic segregation among China's population. Today's China socioeconomic inequality is greatly influenced by the socioeconomic and spatial segregation between the city and the countryside sustained and supported by the hukou system during the Mao-era. In sum, the hukou system takes part of the responsibility for China's great economic development, as well as for its underdevelopments.The hukou system yet-'economical relevance,' specially as regards one's life opportunity, access to formal education, social prestige, income, and access to urban infrastructure, was empirically testified through field research and sample survey conducted among Jinan street dealers in the summer of 2005.The present dissertation is divided into three parts. The first part traces the hukou system's historical origin and evolution, and outlines its current operational features. The second part presents the hukou system as an "economically conditioned" and "economically relevant" phenomenon, and then, analyses its impact on China's economic development and socioeconomic disparity. Finally, the sample survey results and findings are presented in the third part.