公共政策视角下的中国人口老龄化

China's Population Aging from the Perspective of Public Policy

人口老龄化将成为人类社会的常态,它所带来的挑战更多地源于老化的人口年龄结构与现有社会经济体制之间的不协调所产生的矛盾,这使公共政策调节成为必须。仅仅调节人口政策、仅仅调节针对老年人的政策或某一部门的政策都不足以全面应对人口老龄化,而应当以社会整合和长期发展的视角来重构当前的公共政策体系。在重构过程中,不仅要统筹人口系统与其他社会系统的关系,而且要统筹短期目标与中长期战略的联系。因此,应建立一个权威的常态统筹机构,并结合中国的国情,重新定位老年人的社会角色、解决老年人养老的现实问题、支持老龄化社会的可持续发展。

Population aging will become a universal phenomenon in human society.Its challenge drives mainly from the failure of the existing socio-economic system to cope with the aging process.The intervention of public policy is therefore inevitable.This paper argues that in order to comprehensively deal with the aging problem,it is not sufficient to merely readjust population policies,policy measures focusing on the aged or the policies of certain government agencies.Instead,we need to reconstruct the current public policy system from the perspective of social inclusion and a balanced strategy of long-and short-term development.An authoritative integrated government agency should be established to coordinate various government and societal efforts on aging issues.A series of policy measures should be implemented based on China's special socio-economic and cultural conditions,including redefining the social role of senior citizens,solving practical problems related to support for the aged and the sustainable development of an aging society.