| China's urban and rural household registration system was formed in the special domestic and international environment of New China's foundation. With the establishment of planned economy system and with the industrialization moving forward step by step, this sort of "isolated" urban and rural dual household registration system had gradually been set up, which made a positive contribution to China's industrialized process besides the maintenance of its social stability, but at the same time this old dual household registration system resulted in isolation and wide gap between urban and rural areas, thus also solidifying this system. From the movement of "Great Leap Forward" to "Bringing Order Out of Chaos", China's urban and rural household registration system was increasingly reinforced which made more separation and wider gap between urban and rural areas, causing even stronger dual social structure. After "Bringing Order Out of Chaos" the central government adjusted such dual registration system partly, that is, the conditions of becoming an urban resident from a rural one were changed and the abnormal migration from rural to urban was controlled severely. When the migration without changing the household registration was accepted, the changes of the spatial traits in this dual household registration structure took place, which created the internal urban dual registration system, then the dual rural-urban social structure came into being, the reason for the formation of which is that new China's urban and rural household registration system was endowed with multiple social management functions thus bringing separation, wide gap besides inequality between urban and rural residents.Since the policy of "the self-provided welfare household registration system" was carried out, new China's urban and rural household registration system reforming was conducted gradually from pilot projects to the whole country, first in towns, then in medium-sized and big cities, and at last in provincial and autonomous regions, which enhanced the citizen's migration freedom and their equal rights. The reform of household registration system, the reform of the unified urban-rural registration plus the reform of the Urban residence permit system exerted by the government of big and medium-sized cities, made China's household registration reform extend to a wider scope. The advancement of the unified urban-rural registration in provincial and autonomous regions also made those prior rural registration plus non-rural registration a history, so that the unification of residents' identity came true, which sped up the paces of removing residents' welfare inequality resulting from different kinds of registration. The Urban residence permit system and the accumulating-points residence permit system in provincial and autonomous spheres partly resolved job problems, study troubles and kid-education difficulties of those migrants from other areas, which also opened a new channel for those migrants to be allowed to register in their living cities, quickening the process of taking shape of unified household registration system.The ultimate reforming goal of household registration system is to thoroughly break the dual isolated rural-urban household registration structure, building nationwide unified one in which residents can migrate freely. Through combing the evolving reforming course of China's unified household registration system based on which some reforming characteristics will be summarized, this dissertation poses the following ideas:Firstly, by analyzing the changes of China's household registration structure, the paper holds that China's dual rural-urban household registration structure can be grouped into two evolving stages, namely the "isolated" stage and the "penetrating" stage. Owing to spatial isolation between urban and rural residents, the period before the migration without changing the household registration was accepted is called "isolated" dual rural-urban household registration system stage, during which the primary contradiction arose in welfare differences between urban and rural residents. After the mobility without changing the household registration was accepted, more and more surplus rural labor forces entered cities which led to the formation of the urban internal dual rural-urban household registration structure and the formation of the dual rural-urban social structure. Thereby, the "isolated" stage evolved into the "penetrating" stage, during which the chief problem also existed in welfare inequality but between urban internal residents.Secondly, according to the changes in function during the evolving course of new China's household registration system, this paper gives an analysis of its functioning system, which can be categorized into basic functions and derivative functions. The basic functions of China's household registration system include demographic information statistics and identity locations, which constitute the basis and presupposition of the other functions. The identity locating function confined a citizen's legal living place, his employment, compulsory education, and social welfare security to a definite district. Once a citizen's registration identity was defined, it was difficult to change. The identity locating function defined a citizen's identity from the grading and spatial level, which leads to the fundamental distinction between the dual urban-rural household registration system and the unifying-the-dual-as-one system. This function also provided an "interface" of binding the social welfare security to the household registration system. Now we can say, China's dual household registration system served not as a "scapegoat" but as an "accessory" or an "accomplice". Apparently, the ultimate reforming goal of China's household registration system should gradually eliminate its identity locating function, converting the dual household registration system into the unifying-the-dual-as-one system.Thirdly, based on the household registration changes during the reform, this thesis argues that China's registration system can be divided into four paths, that is,"a ternary registration coexisting first, then unifying-as-one structure";"the unified as one by digesting the dual structure";"a third-element. transition structure";"combining rural with non-rural as one structure". The reforming path "a ternary registration coexisting first, then unifying-as-one structure" was mainly followed by towns and small cities, which gradually entered the third-element stage as "the self-provided welfare registration" or "the valid registration only in local towns or small cities," it is another registration form different from the urban and rural registration. So, the first reforming phase in towns and small cities was a stage of constructing a ternary registration. The later reforming phase in towns and small cities was a period combining "the self-provided welfare registration" or "the valid registration only in local towns or small cities" with rural registration and urban registration as one urban registration. We claim this stage as unifying ternary-registrations as one structure. The reforming phase in towns and small cities was made up of two parts, which is why we call it "a ternary registration coexisting first, then unifying-as-one structure" path. Three other reforming paths were adopted by medium-sized or large cities, in which rural registration can be changed into urban one by rebuilding registration thresholds or standards to accept or digest the rural residents in the old dual system. By this means, the original rural household registration would be digested step by step, and then the second typical reforming path "the unified as one by digesting the dual structure" was done. In medium-sized and large cities, urban residence permit system was carried on to establish a third new element household registration between rural and urban residents, meanwhile the standards of the third registration were prescribed. Those original rural residents who met the third element registration requirements can be converted into urban ones. This reforming path via the third element making the dual registration transiting to a unifying one we call "a third-element transition structure". This sort of unified registration reforming in medium-sized or large cities is conducted by using "resident registration" first, then gradually fulfilling the welfare equality among all the residents, the essence of this reform is to integrate the rural and urban registrations into one, we call it "combining rural with non-rural as one structure" reforming path. Obviously, there are two reforming paths of household registration in provincial or autonomous level:the reform of the unified urban-rural household registration falls into the reforming path of "the unified as one by digesting the dual structure". The reform of carrying out the district residence permit system as well as the accumulating-points registration falls into "a third-element transition structure".Fourthly, the effect of performing different reforming registration paths will be analyzed. The reforming path "a ternary registration coexisting first, then unifying-as-one structure" employed by towns and small cities pushed ahead the progress of the registration structure to a unified one effectively. However, it didn't seem to have an obvious influence on developed areas."The unified as one by digesting the dual structure" used in medium-sized and large cities turned out a success in certain cities, but there was ever a suspense by force, so it needs caution to spread nationwide. The "combining rural with non-rural as one structure" reforming path had a good effect on solving the governing of residents'welfare equality, whereas it is difficult to remove the wide welfare gap between local residents and those from other areas. Moreover, the "combining rural with non-rural as one structure" reforming path had very little effect on certain areas. The reforming path "a third-element transition structure" was adopted in big or medium-sized cities and some areas, which can partly deal with job problems, kid-education problems of those migrants from other areas, allowing those from rural who satisfy the urban registration requirements to become urban permanent residents, which can also avoid the impact on the cities brought by great migration.Fifthly, the applying domains of the four registration reforming paths will be analyzed, too. In terms of different reforming paths, the dynamic conditions of pushing the reform by the local governments as well as the various risking properties during the reforming courses, this paper will put forth some suggestions when using these reforming paths. The applying domain of the reforming path "a ternary registration coexisting first, then unifying-as-one structure" lies in those towns and small cities where the amount of welfare load, heavier before registration reforming, can get rapidly closer to that in the regions which the migrants come from with the reform going on."The unified as one by digesting the dual structure" is suitable in the cities or towns where the amount of welfare load is lighter, which is hard to attract migrants, but through setting certain thresholds, the flexible registration may promote the region-wide unification process. The "combining rural with non-rural as one structure" reforming path is adopted appropriately in the cities where the residents from other areas are fewer, and there is little difference in the amount of welfare load."A third-element transition structure" is used properly in cities or areas where the amount of welfare load is heavier and the number of migrants is bigger.Finally, the author tries to bring forward two tips in the future reform of China's household registration system. That is, abolishing the binding constraints between the registration system and the social welfare security system. We can take progressive measures to reform. The traits of urban-rural mobility, the traits of the four reforming application plus the registration reforming practice show that the reform of social welfare security system should be progressive. When reforming the binding constraints between the registration system and the social welfare security system, the government leading position should be guaranteed so that its force of planning residents'welfare as a whole can be strengthened. By establishing the dynamic mechanism of bridging the amount of welfare load gap between urban and rural, region and region, city and city, we can make the rising speed of rural welfare load amount goes higher than that of urban. We can improve the amount of the welfare load in big or medium-sized cities and lower the standard of converting into urban permanent residence registration from urban residence permit registration to make it favorable for those external residents to turn into urban residents. During the reform of the household registration, the dominant position of the central government should also be guaranteed. In small undeveloped towns, small cities, and underdeveloped medium-sized cities due to the light amount of welfare load in household registration, the condition of unifying registration system had been perfected, so "the unified as one digesting the dual structure" is more suitable to accelerate the steps of unification. In medium-sized, big cities or developed areas, where the amount of welfare load is heavier than other regions and there are also more immigrants than other areas, it is better to adopt "residence permit" system or use "a third-element transition structure" which is closely cohered by "residence permit" system and the accumulating points system so that those immigrants'life problems, their employment problems and their kid-education problems due to the external registration can be partly tackled, reducing the great impact exerted by the big number of immigrants at the same time. In a few metropolises, pluralized household registration systems can be adopted to meet the needy requirements of different migrants, creating favorable conditions for parts of the migrants to transform into urban residents.
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