By Wang Xiongjun, Research Team on “Risk Prevention and Countermeasures in the Economic Transformation Period”, DRC

Research Report, No.181, 2017 (Total 5256) 2017-12-15

Abstract: Social differentiation is a basic feature of social development in China, as well as an inevitable stage for China to experience before realizing a higher-level modernization. Social differentiation is mainly manifested in diversified interests, decentralized and reorganized social structures, diversified and complex ideologies and value concepts, and more complicated social differentiation spawned by IT application and the Internet. This trend of social development has posed underlying risks and challenges to economic and social progress. To prevent and resolve social differentiation, it is necessary to strike a balance between differentiation and integration, make steady headways with reform and development in the transformation period, improve the national governance system, and enhance the governance power. To this end, the key policy options are listed as follows. The government needs to reform and improve the distribution structure of to each according to one’s work, flesh out the channels for communication between various social circles and ensure equal opportunity for everyone. It needs to optimize the systems relating to social security and public services to reinforce the social security network. It needs to innovate the social governance mechanism and make it more adaptable to and integrated with the complex social structure. It needs to forge a new governance mechanism consistent with the IT-oriented social development and improve relevant governance means, and enhance the capacity of ideologies and value concepts in guiding social progress in an integrated manner in the new era.

Key words: social differentiation, stratification, risks, governance