Study On Policy Optimization Of Peasants' Old-Age Security

Population aging is a worldwide problem and it is quite serious in China. The proportion of rural elderly is more than seventy percent of a large amount of aged population. Meanwhile, because of Chinese economy and society changing a lot, the traditional family support was impacted greatly in rural areas and the old-age support problem of the peasants becomes more and more obvious. Since the 1990s, Chinese government has adopted a series of public policies to relieve the old-age support pressure of the peasants. But the means of modern security policy does not achieve the desired effect, not yet meet the requirements of social transformation. The problem of peasants'old-age support turn to a major problem to affect rural economic and social development. Whether can be properly resolved or not, the problem directly related to the basic life of the rural residents who is 60% of the total population and related to achieve a series of social goals, such as the construction of new socialist countryside and building harmonious society.Then, does these policies meet their basic needs? What are the living difficulties of the rural elderly? How to optimize the policy system to better protect the peasants' basic elderly life? This study takes human needs and satisfaction as a starting point and thread, deeply digs the policy foundation of the old-age security and through quantitative analysis, evaluates the practical effect of the peasants' old-age policies. On the other hand, it empirically analyzes the satisfaction of the needs of peasants'old-age support, the development direction and the specific content of these needs. On this basis, this study explores the theory and the practice to optimize this policy system and gives the overall planning and definite suggestions about the peasants" old-age security and its policy system. Through this study, the researcher draws the following conclusions:First, the basic needs of old-age support are the policy foundation of the old-age security.'Need' is the basic concept in the social science research. With the view of human needs, we can find that the essence of the problem which is the contradiction between the needs of old-age support and security institution. Since the traditional old-age security has been more weakening, the contradiction between these needs and security policies becomes gradually highlighted and this kind of relation influents the development of rural social security. Actually, it is the conflict between human needs and social welfare. To satisfy these needs will reflect the real value of the rural old-age policies. Therefore, researching the peasants'old-age policies from the perspective of human needs has the original meaning. However, what exactly are the needs of old-age support? They are subjective feelings when people lack of necessary security, care and comfort on the aspects of material life and spiritual life in old age. These needs are objectivity, hierarchy and universality. They can be divided into health need, economic need, care need and spiritual need. On the other hand, in the historical development, Chinese peasants' old-age security have experienced from family security to collective security then to social security. The security patterns changed from traditional family support to modern social support. Currently, Chinese government is trying to reform the peasants'old-age policies. It is important to establish this idea which has theoretical value and realistic meanings for the long-term development of the peasants'old-age policy system.Second, this policy system doesn't satisfy the basic needs of old-age support at present. Through the analysis of the coordination of the policy system, the comprehensive assessment of policy effect and function analysis of specific policies, the study indicates that:(1) the peasants" old-age policy system exists much in-coordination. There are in the object sub-system, in the subject sub-system, between the object and the subject sub-system, between this policy system and other policy systems, and between the policy system and its environment. The in-coordination obstructed the effective operation of the whole system. (2) On the trend of historical change, the comprehensive assessment of policy effect from 1999 to 2008 shows that it is a devious process which can be divided into four periods:decline, bottom, rise and rapidly increase. On the security level of the areas, China is formed by five regions which are high, relatively high, middle, relatively low and low levels according to the policy effect in 2008. Two-thirds of the provinces are in last two regions, so the regional difference of policy effect is quite large and the regional development of the policy system is unbalanced. (3) In the analysis of relief policy, insurance policy and welfare policy, the study find that the relief sub-system has greater coverage and basically achieves the requirement, although its security level is limited. The insurance sub-system is in the reform stage and doesn't meet the basic needs of the peasants'old-age support. The welfare sub-system mainly satisfies the needs of five guarantees family in rural areas and it is difficult to supply diversify social services of old-age support for the other rural residents. In general, three policy sub-systems represent low hierarchy, low level and low coverage features.Third, the satisfaction level of the needs of peasants'old-age support is rather low. And the socialization trend of the will to be supported becomes quite clear. Health need and economic need are very urgent in the four needs. Through the research on the present status and the satisfaction level of the aged to be supported, the will of rural young and middle aged to be supported and the specific content of the needs, this study discovers that:(1) most rural elderly live a hard life. Their present status of health, economy, care and spirit are not optimistic and their level of later life satisfaction is in general level. (2) The will of rural young and middle aged to be supported is obviously influenced by eight factors. They are age, education, familiarity with new rural social endowment insurance and whether have insured in the individual characters and family members who are living together, the number of boys, the number of girls and the average of family income in the family characters. The will of rural young and middle aged to be supported manifest socialization selectivity. In the meantime, the tradition model of old-age support has sustained action, so self support, family support and social support will exist for a long time. (3) On the specific content of needs, the basic medical need of the rural elderly is quite strong, especially to the aged who are on the edge of poverty and without medical security. Most rural elderly residents are in economic difficulty and their living standard is lower. The aged take care of themselves in most cases. The older elderly (defined as those aged 80 or older) and those who are living alone lack of communication objects and their life is lonely. Health need and economic need are in the first place of the need structure with the four kinds. On the whole, the satisfaction of the needs of peasants'old-age support is low level, urgent and diversified.Forth, optimizing the peasants'old-age policy has adequate theoretical basis, clear value hierarchy and definite structure tendency. First of all, optimizing the policy system should increase the policy supply. And increasing the policy supply has adequate theoretical reasons. No matter the policy background of risk society, undersupply of quasi-public goods, inevitable choice of protecting political stability or functional requirement of service government all certificate the necessity to increase the policy supply. Then, optimizing policy will surely involve the problem of value orientation. The value structure of the peasants' old-age policy is a kind of existing order. It includes fundamental value which is protecting the right of the aged for social support, extended value which can reflect the social justices and ultimate value which will stimulate all-round development of rural elderly. Formed with different value hierarchies, the structure will provide value motivation to push the policy optimization. And then, from synergetics, this study believes that the optimization should center round the dominant order parameter-the needs of old-age support, and shape the synergic structure of the whole policy system, confirming the synergism between many policy sub-systems such as relief, insurance and welfare.Fifth, optimizing the peasants'old-age policy has certain economic foundation and social environment and it can use the advanced practical experience at home and abroad for reference. Compared with the proportion of agricultural GDP, the structure share of agricultural labor, the proportion of agricultural population and the per capita GDP, China has basically have the condition to provide large-scale policy support for rural residents to solve the old-age problem. Furthermore, with the increasing of governmental finance and peasants" income, optimizing policy has stronger economic support. At the same time, the environment at home and abroad has become beneficial to the policy optimizing. On the other hand, the typical countries like German, America and Japan, have some universal strategies and experience about establishing social security for the aged. They give us much important enlightenment. Moreover, some areas in China is taking a lot of policy practice and creation on economic security, life care, spirit culture and medical care. They also provide some practical cases which can be used for reference.In summary,'needs'is the policy foundation of peasants' old-age security, but the current policy system don't satisfy these basic needs of the massive peasants. The satisfaction level is rather low and these needs are urgent. So we have to optimize the policy system of peasants' old-age support. According to the relative theory and reality, this study centers round the basic needs of old-age support and their satisfaction. It brings the general plan of peasants'old-age security, analyzes the methods, related questions and short-term goals of optimizing the policy system and gives some definite suggestions.