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Socialist Medicine and Theories of Informal Payments

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Informal Payments and Regulations in China's Healthcare System

Abstract

This chapter first examines professions in the Western society and identifies intermediary social structure as a vital institution upon which professionalization is advanced. It then critically reviews the sociology of Soviet Medicine and the “inxit” theory explaining informal payments in post-socialist countries. The former theory argues that the totalitarian organization of Soviet medicine turned the medical profession into a hybrid one which lost its organizational power and control over work and economic terms, but obtained bureaucratic power that doctors tended to abuse. The “inxit” theory argues the practice is a strategy to cope with shortage of quality, absence of a private sector, and the lack of an open space for negotiation. But both theories leave some questions unanswered which this research intends to address.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Studies, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Jingqing Yang

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Yang, J. (2017). Socialist Medicine and Theories of Informal Payments. In: Informal Payments and Regulations in China's Healthcare System. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2110-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2110-7_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2109-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2110-7

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