中国社会政策的扩展与“社会中国”的前景

China's Recent Social Policy Expansion and the Future of "Social China"

自21世纪以来,面对社会发展形势的变化,党和政府重新意识到社会政策在国家发展中的重要作用,开始关注民生保障和社会建设。2003年以来,中国经历了一段社会政策快速扩张的时期,政府一方面通过扩大原有社会政策的覆盖范围来加强对居民的保护,另一方面通过实施新的社会政策来保障长期被忽视的弱势群体。中国社会政策的扩展推动了政府在社会政策领域角色的加强,建立了统一的政策体系,带动了社会组织和社会服务的快速发展,并逐步形成了基于地方公民身分的福利地区。虽然仍然面临着城乡和地域差异的挑战,我国的社会政策将逐步突破城乡分割、职业分割、区域分割,以形成以社会公民身分为基础的"社会中国"。

Since the beginning of the new century, the political leadership in China has reconfirmed the role of social policy in social and economic development,and paid increasing attention to the people's livelihood. Against this backdrop, a round of rapid expansion of social policy has taken place in China since 2003. In doing so, the central government has formulated a series of new policies and programs to extend social security benefits to the general public, especially the socially disadvantaged groups, such as farmers, urban residents and migrant workers. The full implementation of these policies indicates an emerging welfare state in China. China's social policy expansion has strengthened the role of the government in social areas, promoted the building of the unified social policy regime, and brought about rapid growth of social organizations and social services. The local activism in social policy areas has also promoted the growth of local welfare states based on local social citizenship. However, China's social policy development still suffers from the challenges of ruralurban gap and regional disparities. Nevertheless, a social citizenship-based 'social China' will be on rise and it will eventually erase social segmentations in China.