本文以中國大陸與台灣戶籍制度歷史發展為例，探討現代人口治理制度變遷的動力。我們發現，政治經濟轉型對兩岸人口治理制度的變遷與分歧有極大的影響，現代國家迫於財政需要，將人口與稅收納入官僚化治理，但是威權體制或殖民體制更傾向建構並且維持種種戶籍分類，直到民主轉型才會逐漸取消公民資格的分類差異。台灣民主化時期廢除了省籍不平等、與中國大陸戶籍制度繼續維持城鄉不平等，凸顯了政治轉型對人口治理制度的重大影響。

The article examines the relationship among state building, political transition and “demographic governance”, which refers to the identification, categorization and management of a population/household registration system. By comparing the similarity and differences of the development of household registration system in Taiwan and China after early twentieth century, it is illustrated that the divergence of demographic governance resulted from the early stage of modern state building. The Japanese colonial government in Taiwan from 1895 and the communist regime from 1949 established and sustained household registration systems by the police departments. Both the states in Taiwan and China developed unequal categorized system for the elites’ political and economic purposes. From the 1980s, however, the democratic transition in Taiwan changed the household registration system from an unequal categorized and policed system to a registration system with more individualized characteristics and more universalized citizenship. In contrast, without democratic transition, the Chinese household registration system still is run by the public security department with the “agricultural” and “non-agricultural” divide. The historical comparative study shows the dynamics and decline of management and categorization of demographic governance in modern Chinese societies.