Balancing Particularism and Universalism in Welfare Policy: Insights From China's Hukou Reform

Original

Balancing Particularism and Universalism in Welfare Policy: Insights From China's Hukou Reform

Liu Chen, Tom Christensen, Xufeng Zhu

Abstract

ABSTRACT Welfare policies often combine particularistic and universalistic elements, yet we know less about how shifts in this balance shape public attitudes toward vulnerable low‐status groups. This article develops a three‐dimensional framework for analyzing welfare policy, distinguishing among welfare scope, welfare benefits, and inclusion criteria. We argue that public attitudes toward lower‐status groups are shaped by the combined signal about the welfare deservingness hierarchy generated by the configuration of particularistic and universalistic elements across these dimensions. Because policy design packages convey a broader normative stance about who belongs and who deserves, they can influence perceptions of groups that are not directly targeted by a policy change, lowering or raising their perceived deservingness. Using difference‐in‐differences and regression discontinuity methods, we analyze Weibo posts during China's two‐round hukou reform. We find that shifts toward more particularistic policy configurations lead to more negative attitudes toward low‐skilled migrant workers, whereas shifts toward more universalistic configurations yield more positive attitudes. Subgroup analyses yield suggestive patterns across local economic contexts and individual characteristics. These findings have broader implications for research on welfare policy systems and for reform efforts regarding social integration.