Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China

(Cornell University Press) Frazier explores pension policy in the People’s Republic of China, where increasingly well-funded public pension programs still only provide pensions for about one third of the population over the age of 60. Analyzing the decisions of political actors responsible for pension reform, Frazier argues that the government’s push to expand pension and health insurance coverage to urban residents and rural migrants has reproduced, rather than reduced, economic inequalities. He demonstrates that these welfare disparities place China in the same situation as other large countries that have achieved rapid growth at the expense of growing economic inequality. Frazier is Conoco-Phillips Professor of Chinese Politics and Associate Professor, School of International and Area Studies, at the University of Oklahoma.