摘要
作者认为,社会分层机制总是嵌入特定社会经济形态之中,并由规定着社会经济形态特征的产权所有制及其与国家权力之间的关系来解释的。在中国计划经济体制下,国家垄断生产资料并以行政性的委托—代理方式经营,人力资本产权残缺;这样的基本制度安排,决定了人力资本只能以非市场贸易的方式同生产资料结合,经营剩余以国家租金的形式存在;国家公共权力不但表现为索取剩余的租金权力,也表现为分配这些租金的再分配权力。再分配者在再分配过程中偏向自己而导致阶层分化。在当前中国市场经济情形下,公有资产的既具行政性又具契约性的委托—代理制度,以及嵌入在政治权威结构之中的市场制度,共同构成了阶层分化的制度基础。如此制度安排,决定了国家公共权力持续地但只是部分地表现为再分配权力;同时它还衍生成了权力精英谋取私利的寻租能力;市场能力对生活机遇的分配产生着影响。再分配权力、寻租能力、市场能力共同构成了阶层分化的动力基础。以这些动力基础为依据,作者构建了一个由十个阶层构成的框架,以呈现当前中国城市社会分层结构的轮廓。
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.
出处
《社会学研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2005年第5期1-25,共25页
Sociological Studies
