Changing Politics of Social Policy in China: Blame Avoidance and Credit Claiming in an Adaptive Authoritarian State

Blame avoidance and credit claiming are two popular concepts for explaining the politics of welfare retrenchment in the mature welfare state. They indicate the crucial impact of electorates in competitive democracies on the policymaking that renders welfare institutions resilient even under the pressure of permanent austerity. This article modifies these concepts to account for the politics of social policy in China, an authoritarian state often viewed as capable of implementing reforms without difficulties. I argue that this view is far from reality as the government officials also hold accountable for their policies mainly to their superior party supervisors who evaluate their political performances. The specific political institutions in China namely entail different mechanisms that influence the logic of blame avoidance and credit claiming, and accordingly, the politics of social policy from those of Western democracies. To explore this aspect, an explanatory framework from the perspective of central-local relations is employed to understand the devolution of social policy and its impact on welfare politics. Given the economic and fiscal decentralization, central and local governments essentially follow different logics of blame avoidance and credit claiming when it comes to expanding or dismantling redistributive social policy and social service: Central government tends to claim credit by setting up social policies whose financial responsibilities rest on the shoulders of local governments, or avoid blame in case of dismantlement by passing the buck to local cadres responsible for implementation. Local governments, by contrast, avoid blame by either delaying or selectively implementing policies dictated by the center. They can also claim credit by experimenting with new policy models that may find nationwide application later. Health reforms and social service for migrant workers are used as two examples to illuminate the driving force behind the politics of social policy in China.