Abstract
Beginning in the 1990s, marketization of municipal services generally resulted in decentralization and fracturing of employment relations in China’s cities. This generated a series of strikes beginning in the 2000s, thus providing the impetus towards standardization and re-regulation of employment conditions. Based on a study of the sanitation and taxi sectors in Wenzhou and Guangzhou, we find that local governments have utilized three strategies in promoting standardization: unionization, public policy, and business consolidation. While outcomes vary somewhat across our cases, institutionalization remains weak at best and conflict persists. We conclude the paper through presenting a schema for comparing different strategies identified in our cases and those historically institutionalized in the Western world.