Leiden University Student Repository

Lu, Miaomiao (2021)

China’s Social Credit System: The Mechanisms of Achieving Behavioral Change

Master thesis | Public Administration (MSc)

An ambitious project, the social credit system (SCS) was suggested by the Chinese government in 2014 in order to increase trust and integrity within Chinese society. It aims to shape citizens’ behavior in the way that is desired by the Chinese government. In other words, it punishes and rewards citizens, whereby “good” behavior will increase their scores and “bad” behavior will decrease their overall rating. Until now, previous studies on the SCS have argued that it is used for surveillance or as a tool of social governance. However, this paper provides a new perspective by conceiving of the SCS as a number of policy tools while discussing its method of shaping citizens’ behaviors. As a result, it concludes that the Chinese SCS can change and shape citizens’ behavior through social norms and affect their motivations to behave towards the way the Chinese government desires.

social credit system

policy tools

surveillance

mechanisms

Author

Lu, Miaomiao

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Specialisation

Economics and Governance

Supervisors

Suzuki, K.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en