The Politics of 'One-Child' Policy: Ideas, Interests and Institutions

Abstract

20世紀70年代末開始實施的'一胎化'政策,無論目標還是手段,均極為嚴苛。這種政策,為什么只有中國能夠推行?為什么是這個時點?為什么是一胎?為什么能延續至今?通過橫向、縱向的一系列比較,本文指出僅從人口指標、物質利益、制度結構出發并不能解釋計劃生育政策的產生與演變。其關鍵還在理念。一胎化是具有內在一致性的六組理念在同一方向強化建構的產物(發展代替革命、計劃先于運動與市場、科學取代傳統、國家優于家庭、民族國家取代種族、男權壓倒女權)。正是'國家'話語主導建構的人口'危機'賦予了一胎化合法性。而危機本身,則來源于國家政治精英在發展問題上的急切愿望與強烈焦慮。 The one-child policy that was launched in the late 1970s is extremely oppressive in terms of both its goals and means. Why is China the only country that has carried out such a policy? Why the late 1970s? Why one child? Why is it still in force today? Based on a series of cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons,we point out that the demographic indicators,material interests,or institutional structures alone cannot fully explain the origins and evolution of China’s one-child policy. Instead,we argue that the key is ideas. The one-child policy was a result of six sets of ideas,which were oriented toward the same direction and strengthened one another:state over family,development over revolution,planning over campaigning and the market,science over tradition,the nation-state over human race,and male domination over gender equality. The official population'crisis'constructed by the official discourse of the state legitimized the one-child policy,while the'crisis'itself resulted from the political elite’s desire and anxiety for development.