社会权利与和谐社会:关于中国福利政策的新视角

Social Rights and Harmonious Society:New Perspective of China’s Social Policy

中国在建设和谐社会和发展社会政策的过程中面临三个问题:福利国家的经验可以学什么?福利能否促进效率?能不能够控制福利成本?站在推进社会福利的角度上,必须对这样三个问题做出明确的回应。本文提出三个角度,试图回应以上问题。它们分别是:第一,强调'社会权利'。欧洲福利国家的经验中,最值得学习的是围绕着社会权利概念而形成的理论与实践。第二,强调'积极福利',要为福利与效率之间的关系寻求积极的论证。第三,强调公民社会,即相信,一个良好组织的公民社会及其与政府和企业之间的良性互动,能够有效地降低福利提供与服务提供的成本。

This paper aims to answer three important questions in contemporary China:when it is turning to a harmonious society with mature social policies,what policy experiences/lessons can China learn from the mature welfare states? Whether social welfare facilitates economic efficiency or not? Whether welfare costs can be controlled or not?Three dimensions are proposed to fulfill this end.First,social rights.Theories and policy practices that initiate and are developed from this conception should be seen as the best knowledge from western welfare states to China.Second,active social welfares.It could be the basis for convincing the positive connections between social welfare and economic efficiency.Third,civil society.It is argued that virtuous circle among well-organized civil society,governments and enterprises can effectively decrease the costs throughout welfare provisions and service delivery.