Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2020

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Public Policy Leadership

First Advisor

Weixing (Mark) Chen

Second Advisor

Albert Nylander

Third Advisor

Joshua First

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This thesis examines the social credit score (SCS) system of China and the implications that it may have in Chinese society. The SCS is a revolutionary accountability system that is touted to ascertain a person’s trustworthiness of a person. An individualized score is produced by a complex algorithm which takes into account both social and financial behaviors. My research, comprised primarily from secondary qualitative data, discusses the SCS system and analyzes the political, social, and economic implications that the SCS may have on Chinese society. Conflict theory is utilized to help contextualize my findings and explain the increase in authoritative con- trol I predict will result from the implementation of the SCS system. While the full effect of the SCS is yet to be seen, my research indicates that it will play a role in nearly every aspect of the social behaviors and financial decisions that the majority of Chinese make on a daily basis.

Thesis - final copy.pdf (307 kB)
This thesis examines the social credit score (SCS) system of China and the implications that it may have in Chinese society. The SCS is a revolutionary accountability system that is touted to ascertain a person’s trustworthiness of a person. An individualized score is produced by a complex algorithm which takes into account both social and financial behaviors. My research, comprised primarily from secondary qualitative data, discusses the SCS system and analyzes the political, social, and economic implications that the SCS may have on Chinese society. Conflict theory is utilized to help contextualize my findings and explain the increase in authoritative con- trol I predict will result from the implementation of the SCS system. While the full effect of the SCS is yet to be seen, my research indicates that it will play a role in nearly every aspect of the social behaviors and financial decisions that the majority of Chinese make on a daily basis.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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