 Dorothy J. Solinger, Path Dependency Reexamined: Chinese Welfare Policy in the Transition to Unemployment Despite a fundamental shift in China since 1978, elements of continuity persist. The concept of path dependence can be refined by distinguishing two levels on which policy is made and implemented: tactical and programmatic/strategic. Path dependence is lodged in institutional practices, not necessarily in the content of particular programs. This formulation offers a way to account for continuity amid change and a means of extending the concept of path dependence to polities where continuity occurs outside of the democratic electoral accountability of politicians to constituents. Recent Chinese unemployment insurance and poverty alleviation programs illustrate this argument. |