Culture，Institution and Structure: Reflections on the studies of Chinese social relations

非正式关系渗透在政治和经济领域的正式组织和科层体系之中,被认为是中国社会关系的重要特征。本文梳理韦伯以来讨论中国社会关系的重要研究,归纳出四种讨论中国社会关系的不同路径:“特殊主义”和科层制、庇护主义、儒家社会理论与“关系”,以及社会网络研究。这些路径在理论背景、研究主题和写作时间上各有特点,有些路径中还隐藏着不同程度的价值判断。梳理显示出三支讨论社会关系的脉络:侧重特定政治经济背景的制度视角、侧重伦理涵义的文化视角,以及社会网络分析所代表的结构视角。本文认为,应当将文化、制度与结构视角相结合,分析社会关系的结构特征与伦理内涵为转型社会的科层制建设以及制度变迁提供了怎样的基础。

Personal relations extensively permeate among formal organizations and bureaucratic systems in social，political and economic fields in China，which is regarded as the essential characteristic of Chinese social relations． This paper tries to trace the research line on Chinese social relations since Max Weber． According to their underlying research questions and theoretical backgrounds，four alternative approaches can be identified，namely particularism and bureaucracy，clientelism，Confucian ethics and Guanxi，and social networks． And there are three main perspectives according to the existing literature: the institutional perspective focusing on the influences of specific political economy institutions，the cultural perspective emphasizing the ethical meanings，and the new structural perspective based on social networks analysis． This paper argues that the three perspectives should be integrated together in substantial empirical studies，so that the structural characteristics and ethical meanings of social relations could be used to reveal the social foundations of improving the bureaucratic system and institutional change in the transformation of Chinese society．

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