Changing Welfare Institution and Evolution of Chinese Nonprofit Organizations: The Story of Elder Care Homes in Urban Shanghai

Shanghai has the oldest population profile in the country. The growing pool of seniors creates a large market for residential care. The municipality has actively engaged in institution building to promote welfare nonprofit organizations (NPOs) so that they can take on the brunt of delivering care. Using selected elder care homes in the city as case examples, we attempt to trace the institutional change in the development of residential care as well as its impact on the evolution of non-state care agencies since the new millennium. Our empirical findings suggest that in Shanghai, the state indeed has strengthened its role in welfare planning, financing, and provision through formal and informal institutional arrangement. In this process, welfare NPOs serve as agents of the state and are regulated and incorporated under a system of state dominance. Therefore, it is arguable whether the expansion of non-state welfare can be taken as a success indicator for the welfare socialization policy. Rather, at the present stage, state hegemony in welfare development remains unchallenged. State dominance looks set to become a long-term feature of the new welfare economy in China.