The sources of the socialist state power in penetrating and coordinating society have been premised on the de facto state ownership of labor power and the absence of market mechanisms to exchange labor capacity to the highest bidder: The graduate job assignment system deprives students' private property rights of disposal of labor efforts, and enables the party-state to regulate remuneration to college education via differentiated job placements. Implicit in the system are bureaucratic allocative mechanisms that are imperative for desirable job placements. These induce the stratification effects over students' subsequent career prospects, and create incentives for political affiliation as the corresponding mobility strategy. This empowers the communist party to reward those 'political l...[ Read more ]

The sources of the socialist state power in penetrating and coordinating society have been premised on the de facto state ownership of labor power and the absence of market mechanisms to exchange labor capacity to the highest bidder: The graduate job assignment system deprives students' private property rights of disposal of labor efforts, and enables the party-state to regulate remuneration to college education via differentiated job placements. Implicit in the system are bureaucratic allocative mechanisms that are imperative for desirable job placements. These induce the stratification effects over students' subsequent career prospects, and create incentives for political affiliation as the corresponding mobility strategy. This empowers the communist party to reward those 'political loyal' and helps perpetuate its rule and role of social guidance.

This study examines the processes of recovering job rights in urban China as a case study in market transition from socialism and its impact on student's authority orientation: As part of the reform package of responsibility system, educational and job assignment reforms sever the links between educational attendence and career placement, and enable the students to gradually re-assume the private property rights of their labor power. The bureaucratic control over job information is deregulated, and the party-state has found it increasingly difficult to control their access to emerging market opportunities.

This study shows that the resulting re-stratification process depicts new opportunities structure for students and impels them to seek alternative mobility strategies, though they are still subject to the lingering bureaucratic cast. This illustrates that political affiliation itself is no longer a chief avenue for career advancement, and cannot be used to avoid downward mobility. Yet, this also indicates that the graduate job market is unfolding not entirely according to market logic that rewards human capital alone, but retains political credentials in the selection process. This upholds incentives for political affiliation and allows the CCP to enforce minimal political loyalty, even in a non-redistributive socio- economic context.