Reducing Rural-Urban Social Inequality: Chinese and Russian Comparative Experience

O A Antoncheva,T E Apanasenko

doi:10.22394/1726-1139-2020-7-8-19

Abstract

Rural-urban social inequality in Russia is evident. Russian public opinion proposes to reduce the rural-urban income gap, both within the framework of the self-regulating market paradigm, reflected in public programmes, and within the planned command economy framework. In the same ways it proposes to achieve an inter-regional socio-economic balance.The People’s Republic of China (PRC) also faces the problem of reducing rural-urban social inequality. It looks as if it is trying to solve the problem by applying direct measures that can even reverse the processes of urbanization.This article proposes to analyze and adopt the most effective ways of reducing rural-urban inequality, as practiced in China. It is also possible to incorporate in the Chinese state’s management of social processes the methods of reduction of inequality between rural and urban populations, created by the dirigiste trends of Russian public thought, since the socio-economic system of the PRC readily assimilates elements of the planned economy.

Highlights

The Chinese government is trying to solve the acute problem of unbalanced regional development with the help of social policy: a kind of social credit in the form of access to certain benefits for migrants in intermediate and small cities
The government recognized the need for urbanization to modernize the economy, since the labour migration of rural residents had formed the basis of low-cost labour, and the registration system was weakened, collectivization in the agricultural sector was cancelled
The problem of eliminating rural-urban social inequality in both Russia and China is connected with the problem of imbalances in regional development

Summary

Introduction

The Chinese government is trying to solve the acute problem of unbalanced regional development with the help of social policy: a kind of social credit in the form of access to certain benefits for migrants in intermediate and small cities. These social policy measures are proposed to solve the problem of rural-urban social inequality, which is even more acute for Chinese society than for Russia. As can be seen from table 1, the per capita income of the urban residents is much higher than that of the rural residents. In 2003–2009, the income of rural residents was 50–57% of that of the urban residents This value fluctuated from year to year. In 2010 it was 60%, and in 2011 62%, since 2015 it has not fallen below 63%, and in 2018 it was 65% Despite this positive trend, the income of rural residents is still significantly lower than that of the urban residents. E., the most common income values) in rural areas are lower than in urban areas. The curve symbolizing the distribution of households according to the self-estimated financial status is shifted to the left for rural residents in relation to the urban curve, as can be seen in fig. 1 and fig

Per capita monetary income ratio in urban and rural areas

Findings

Conclusions