Social Policy Related Paper "Enlightenment of Developmental Social Policy to Social Policy Construction in China"
Brief introduction of the author
Wei Yaping, Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing University of Technology, Ph.D. student in sociology, China Renmin University (Beijing100022);
Wei Yali, lecturer, School of Language and Culture, Xinjiang Medical University (Urumqi, Xinjiang 8300 1 1).
After combing the theoretical viewpoints and policy practice of western developmental social policies, this paper holds that the theory and practice of developmental social policies provide useful reference and enlightenment for the construction of a harmonious society in China and provide new ideas and perspectives for the reconstruction of new social development policies.
Social policy; Development; harmonious society
Social policy is formulated by the state or government to achieve social justice, welfare and other specific social goals, and it is the general name of various laws, regulations, measures and methods. Comrade Hu Jintao pointed out that what kind of socialist harmonious society should we build? Democracy and the rule of law, fairness and justice, honesty and friendship, vitality, stability and order, and harmony between man and nature? . Faced with many social problems in the process of reform and development, China should actively formulate social policies suitable for the national conditions. In the practice of building a harmonious society under the guidance of Scientific Outlook on Development, what ideas are needed to design the specific system and mechanism of China's social policy? This is an urgent problem to be solved.
First, the main theoretical viewpoints of developmental social policy
1. Background of developmental social policy
Keynes said as early as the 1930s:? The political problem of mankind is to combine economic interests, social justice and individual freedom. ? With the development of society, great changes have taken place in social policy systems around the world. Is it fair? Our inclusive welfare policy has made the government bear a heavy welfare burden and has been criticized. Should we choose to emphasize it? Benefit? Privatization of welfare as a revision, market regulation? As a mainstream thought, it has won praise all over the world. However, people soon found that the market did not become a panacea to solve the welfare dilemma as many policy makers initially imagined. Faced with the drastic changes in the world political and economic structure and the deepening polarization between the rich and the poor, governments and scholars all over the world have reflected on the previous social welfare policies while exploring new ones, and finally realized that fairness, efficiency and freedom are all beautiful, but one-sided pursuit of any of them will produce no? Beautiful? Result. So social policy researchers try to break through this dual thinking mode and look for new reform ideas, among which Giddens's? The third way? With Michili? Developmental social policy model? As a representative.
2. Giddens Ko? The third way?
Giddens believes that the western welfare system needs a big reform, transforming the negative welfare concept into a positive one, paying attention to cultivating the spirit of personal responsibility and independence, and giving full play to the role of various social organizations and institutions so that they can make more positive contributions to the welfare system. Will the original welfare state be reformed? Social investment country? ,? The main principle of a country with social investment is to invest in human capital as much as possible, and it is best not to provide direct financial assistance? In this way, a benign society will be established? Risk? Is it safe? Relationship and? Personal responsibility? Collective responsibility? Relationship. It is emphasized that social policies should not only improve welfare, but also be conducive to creating wealth. Welfare consumption expenditure should be transformed into social investment expenditure such as education, training and job creation, and coordinated action to eliminate poverty should be included in the strategy to improve the overall competitiveness of the economy. In addition, he also advocated the use of? Welfare society? Concept substitution? Welfare state? Mixed welfare model.
3. Mei Zhili's developmental social policy model
Mei Zhili, an American scholar, is the main advocate of developmental social policy model, whose core idea is to emphasize the integration of economic policy and social policy. In his view, the way of providing welfare should be dynamic and positive, and bringing the social dimension into the development policy is a prerequisite for successful development. ? Traditional means of welfare, such as charity, social work and social management, do not link social welfare with economic development from the macro-structure, while developmental social policies promote the welfare of the whole people through planned social changes? Social policies should benefit the whole people, not just meet the needs of the poor. He also agrees with Giddens' social investment orientation on social welfare, and thinks that social welfare can promote the development of human capital and reduce the obstacles for social members to participate in the economy. We should pay attention to the accumulation of social capital and community construction, and mobilize various systems including market, community and state to provide people's welfare level.
4. Overview of developmental social policies
Generally speaking, developmental social policies have the following characteristics: (1) Social policies are productive forces, not the burden of economic development, but promote economic development, emphasizing the coordinated development of social policies and economy. (2) Emphasize the integration of social policies, think that the object of social policies is all members, and change the special object of traditional assistance into the provision of personal and family welfare. At the same time, it is emphasized that people at different stages can enjoy the support of social policies. (3) Social policy is regarded as a social investment behavior, and social resources are invested in human capital and social capital through redistribution policy to improve people's ability, which plays a fundamental role in preventing poverty and improving national competitiveness. (4) Is it harmful to poverty to emphasize the combination of short-term and long-term goals of development? Upstream interference? Policy. Social policies are used to influence individuals' social competitiveness, so as to eliminate or reduce the factors that make people in trouble, rather than remedial assistance afterwards. (5) Under the framework of welfare diversification, the role of the government is to formulate policies and provide funds, and the implementation is completed by a third party.
Second, the main contents of western developmental social policies
1. The employment strategy policy emphasizes inclusiveness.
The European Union Lisbon Conference in 2000 emphasized the integration goal of social policy and economic development, and established two key areas of employment strategy. First, promote more social members to integrate into the labor market and increase the supply of jobs in the market, thus improving the quality of life. The EU has formulated specific and active social policies for three groups of people who are easily excluded from the labor market, including flexible retirement plan for the elderly, active employment policy to improve the working environment, paid maternity leave policy to promote women's employment, and employment policy for immigrants. Second, strengthen human capital investment, such as education, continuing training and other lifelong learning social policies, and increase the ability of social members to participate in the labor market, so as to better adapt to the changes in socio-economic structure and break the vicious circle of social exclusion formed by unemployment, poverty and social isolation.
2. Social policies that emphasize investment in children and support for families.
Is the social policy of helping children and supporting families a developmental social policy? Upstream intervention? Anti-poverty policy to distinguish it from the traditional surplus welfare system? Downstream intervention? Research shows that children who grow up in poor families have a negative impact on their educational opportunities, academic performance and even nutritional status, making them more likely to face employment difficulties and unemployment when they enter adulthood. The social policy of investing in children is not only considered as a measure to cut off the intergenerational transfer of poverty, but also a strategy to improve the quality and competitiveness of the national labor force.
On the other hand, an important change that distinguishes developmental social policies from traditional social policies is that social policies not only help the particularly vulnerable groups, but also help all families and individuals. The British government encourages employers to formulate a family vacation system and flexible working hours that are conducive to employees' family responsibilities, so that workers can have time to participate in family care, achieve a balance between work and family responsibilities, ensure the normal operation of family functions, improve the quality of family life, and thus reduce the impact of marital instability. Developmental social policy emphasizes more on providing help to ordinary non-poor families from the perspective of prevention, rather than compensatory help after family functions are affected. From the perspective of time strategy, developmental social policies pay more attention to medium and long-term development policies than short-term rescue and help policies.
3. Advocate welfare diversification and realize the integration of social policy and economic policy.
Multi-welfare model is a kind of compromise model chosen in contrast to the binary opposition between welfare state system and welfare privatization. The developmental social policy requires the government to maintain the main position in the whole welfare system and assume the most basic responsibilities. At the same time, other organizations, enterprises, communities, families and individuals also participate in social policy actions and share responsibilities in an institutionalized way. Introduce market competition mechanism in public sector and welfare projects to improve project operation efficiency; The government replaced the past financial allocation by purchasing services, which expanded the free choice of welfare institutions for clients. On the one hand, user fees reflect personal responsibility, on the other hand, they also increase the source of funds for welfare institutions and reduce the financial burden of the government.
Third, the developmental social policy and the construction of a harmonious socialist society.
1. Developmental social policy provides new ideas and perspectives for China's social development policy.
Developmental social policy not only pursues social justice, but also economic development. However, it requires that the development we pursue is the development of justice, and the justice we pursue is the justice realized in development. Therefore, the developmental social policy and Scientific Outlook on Development provide a scientific outlook on development for the construction of a harmonious society in China, and provide us with new ideas and perspectives for rethinking the current social welfare system and reconstructing new social development policies. To build a harmonious socialist society, it is necessary to establish a social policy that pays equal attention to social equity and economic policy, and a developmental social policy advocates the social policy concept of promoting economic development. This idea of combining economic development with social justice is advocated by Scientific Outlook on Development, and it is also consistent with China's construction of a harmonious society in Scientific Outlook on Development.
2. Developmental social policy is a concrete way to realize the goal of building a harmonious society.
First of all, the developmental social policy is a regulator to realize social fair distribution, narrow the income gap and coordinate urban and rural development. The basic goal of developmental social policy is to promote the public's interests, all citizens are the objects of their welfare protection, emphasizing the integration rather than separation of social policies, and turning the special object of traditional assistance into people who can enjoy social policy support at different stages. This is not just? It is conducive to broad social unity, and it is also beneficial to compensate the interests of the disadvantaged groups, so that they can enjoy the fruits of social progress and reduce social contradictions and conflicts, thus building a good social order and harmonious society? ⑥。
The long-standing urban-rural dual structure system after the founding of New China emphasized the development of urban social policies, neglected the construction of rural social policies, split the integration of social policies and widened the gap between urban and rural areas. In the Decision of the Central Committee on Several Major Issues of Building a Harmonious Socialist Society adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in 2006, from the institutional level, namely? Strengthen system construction and ensure social fairness and justice? From what angle do you propose the importance of building a harmonious society again? Improve the social security system and ensure people's basic livelihood? . Through a clear explanation of the connotation and extension of the social security system, namely? Adapt to the aging population, urbanization and diversification of employment methods, and gradually establish a social security system covering urban and rural residents that integrates social insurance, social assistance, social welfare and charity? , manufacturing? Developmental social policy has become the concrete operation mode of building a harmonious society. ? ⑦
Second, the developmental social policy attaches importance to safeguarding the individual's right to subsistence and development, and advocates the elimination of poverty through the development of individual capabilities. Is it more fundamental to solve the problem of vulnerable groups? . At present, China's social policies are mostly emergency policies (such as? Minimum living security system? ), the recipients passively accept assistance, only? Blood transfusion? No? Hematopoiety? Can't really get rid of the trap of poverty. Developmental social policy emphasizes the investment of human capital, and holds that good education and healthy body can not only directly improve the quality of life, but also help to improve personal health? Hematopoiety? The ability to earn more income to get rid of poverty and exclusion. Comrade Hu Jintao put forward in the report of the 17th National Congress? Strive to make all the people learn to be educated, get paid for their work, get medical care for their illness, get a sense of security for their old age and live in a house? The formulation of social policies such as medical care, education and employment that benefit the whole people has also become a social construction task focusing on improving people's livelihood.
3. Adhere to the scientific and sustainable development concept and attach importance to the formulation of medium and long-term social policies.
In the past, we always stayed on the three short-term goals of stability, efficiency and redistribution, while ignoring the long-term social policy construction aimed at resisting risks and sustainable development. In view of the continuous advancement of globalization, German sociologist Beck proposed? Global risk association? The concept of 8. With the acceleration of marketization and globalization, China has entered this risky society without exception. In addition, the market-oriented reform of education, medical care and housing has increased the economic burden of members of society, and many families have been overdrawn for a long time. However, excessive life risk is undoubtedly not conducive to the construction of a harmonious society. Therefore, the government should pay attention to the construction of social policies that reflect the medium and long-term strategic objectives, so as to enhance the ability to resist risks and make the construction of a harmonious society go smoothly.
4. Pay attention to the compensation of social policies for those who have lost benefits due to reform.
With the goal of popularizing social insurance. No matter from the perspective of social equity or coordinated development, the government should make appropriate compensation for those who suffered losses in the past because of their unilateral pursuit of economic growth, and formulate corresponding social welfare policies. The overall goal of reforming the dual social security system is to gradually establish a new social security system integrating urban and rural areas. In this process, on the one hand, the coverage of social insurance has been continuously expanded, the projects have been gradually improved, and the standards have been raised day by day, finally realizing the popularization of social insurance. On the other hand, the government has an unshirkable main responsibility for the construction of people's social well-being, but the market, community, non-governmental organizations, the third sector, families and so on. It should also bear corresponding responsibilities, and individuals should also bear corresponding obligations.
Precautions:
(1) Keynes: Selected Works of Keynes (Part II), translated by Wang Lina, etc. Beijing: Reform Press, 2000, p. 343.
2 Anthony? Giddens Ko: "? The third way? And New Theories, Beijing: Social Science Literature Publishing House, 2000, p. 68.
3 Anthony? Hal, James? Mei Zhili. Developmental social policy. Beijing: Social Science Literature Publishing House, 2006, p. 305.
④ Liang Zubin: Reflections on social welfare policy from redistribution to social investment, China Social Sciences, No.6, 2004.
⑤ Zhang Xiulan: "Developmental social policy: an operation mode to realize Scientific Outlook on Development", China Social Sciences, No.6, 2004.
⑥ Wang Sibin: Coordinated development of urban and rural areas and construction of a harmonious society from the perspective of social policy, Hebei Academic Journal,No. 1, 2006.
⑦ Li Yingsheng: Social Policy and Harmonious Society, Teaching and Research,No. 12, 2005.
⑧ Yang and Xie Lizhong: Western Sociological Theory (Volume II), Beijing: Peking University Publishing House, 2006, p. 124.
Source: Xinjiang Social Sciences (Urumqi), No.3, 2009 by Wei Yaping and Wei Yali.
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