Enforcing Law and Norms for Good Citizens: One View of China’s Social Credit System Project

Abstract

Despite widespread mis-characterization and misconception about its policy objective and content, China’s social credit system project at this point consists primarily of a set of new approaches to enforcing conduct norms that already exist in the country’s multi-layered legal and extralegal norm systems. This essay explains such enforcement logic inherent in the project’s application to regulating behavior of individual citizens. It also argues that the project’s implementation of its envisioned new enforcement paradigm is foremost challenged by design difficulties.

Keywords: Social Credit System Project, Law, Norms, Enforcement, Incentives, Compliance

JEL Classification: K23