Center for the Study of Democracy

In China, the gist of the state and its essential mission have shifted, once just over two decades ago and secondly during the l990s, especially in the past 5 or 6 years. The implications for citizenship and entitlement--mainly but not only for workers and migrants--have been vast. This paper focuses on the outcome for membership in the city for those who, with these shifts, have been thrown into the lower ranks of the populace. We show that as of the century's turn, ruralites in big cities were still denied membership, the right to belong officially. And, with the progression in China from marketization and economic "reform" to globalization, socialist distribution steadily declined for all residents of the nation's municipalities, with the direst impact upon the once-but no longer employed.