Basic Structures and Political Implications of a Sustainable Welfare Model

A synopsis of political welfare concepts, which are currently discussed under labels such as ＂green growth＂, ＂zero growth＂ and ＂degrowth＂, has identified fundamental shortcomings concerning the informational bases of the complex links between ecological, social and economic systems, which were taken into account in the creation of the concept. In the development of a concept for political action, a rationally acting environmental policy cannot neglect reflecting on which economic, ecological and social contexts have to be taken into account and on which normative statements its decisions should be grounded. The proposed sustainable welfare model consists of a positive impact and a normative decision model. The positive model provides a description of the ＂world＂ with which the effects of the various options for action on the environmental, social and the economic systems can be assessed. The normative model is a tool for selecting and assessing the options for action in pursuing the desired goal of sustainable welfare development. Principally the key environmental goals are prearranged to socio-economic goals. The model at hand provides the reference points for the development of a sustainable welfare concept, which can be used as a political action plan in the context of environmental policy.

Welfare Balance of Different Interest Groups During Rural-urban Land Conversion

Rural-urban land conversion is currently a common social economic phenomenon during the process of economic development and rural urbanization in China. Rural-urban land conversion is positively effective as far as social and economic benefits are concerned (Yang, 2002), but its negative effect is also evident, resulting in such problems as low efficiency of rural land configuration and loss of social welfare. Consequently, farm-ers should also have an equal chance to enjoy the social welfare enhanced by land conversion. Based on the theories of welfare economy, this paper puts forward policy suggestions by discussing the welfare changes of various interest groups, builds the model of welfare distribution, and analyzes the conditions of maximizing social welfare. The absolute and opposite value of social welfare is closely related with the speed of rural-urban land conversion, and governments should give farmers and collectives fair compensa-tion to make up for the utility loss caused by land expropriation, which are conclusions drawn from this paper. This study aims to provide a theoretical basis for regulating targets and evaluation criteria, realizing the mechanism and implementation of public po-lices during rural-urban land conversion.