From Formal Equality To Essential Equality

From ancient times the disabled existed in society, but their situation and statusare very different. As the growth of the level of productivity development and culturaldevelopment and the increasing number of international communication, the conceptof the disabled also has changed accordingly. Old concept deems that disability ispersonal misfortune in a fatalistic view, denies their potential ability and their basicright as human. Under the influence of it, assistance for the disabled is carried out justfrom the charity and moral level, often increases the loss of dignity. Social factors areconsidered in new concept of the disabled; even it deems that disability is caused bysocial factors in most instances, so society must be responsible for it. The newconcept of the disabled deems the occurrence of disability is no longer to the few. Asa common problem to all mankind, disability maybe happens to everyone. The changefrom old to new concept of the disabled made the academic circles concerned futurerisks which all members of the society confront instead of few people, thus academicresearch in this field booms. Moreover, The limited resources of social security is stillthe reality of contemporary society, considering precedent of social welfare negativeeffects on account of social inequality that once or is happening at home and abroad, Ideems it is a need of social reality that allocates the limited resources of socialsecurity in a fair way and achieves maximum social benefits. Justice is not equal, isdifferent treatment to different people, in order to maintain essential equality; on thecontrary, giving different people the same treatment is deviation of justice，at mostrealizes formal equality. Just under such a background，this paper study on theformal equality and essential equality problem of Chinese social security for thedisabled under the perspective of need. The purpose is to accurately assess the currentdegree of equality in Chinese social society for the disabled, confirm the ought-to-besituation of social society for the disabled, explore the key factor from reality state toought-to-be state and provide optimization proposal of current social society for thedisabled in oreder to be close to substantive equality.Combing the current social security for the disabled, it is found that the disabledreceive general social society and special social society, however, investigate thesespecial social security and its effects, we can find that equality often becomes a mereformality. These problems are as follows:the standard of current social society for thedisabled are too low to show the gap between healthy people and the disabled; the system shows obvious regional differences; meets many obstacles in the process ofimplementing the effect is not so good as expected.It has been proved that essential equality should be the evaluation of socialsecurity for the disabled. The differences and relations between formal equality andessential equality are as follows: Formal equaity is close to people’s daily life,essential equality is idealistic,but it is also worthwhile; Formal equality realizes theprimary equality, essential equality realizes senior equality; formal equality focuseson procedural equality, essential equality focuses on result equality; formal equality isreasonable political field, essential equality is ideal in economic field; formal equalityand essential equality are important valuation, just represents at different fields. Socialsociety for the disabled is part of economic field, so in theory, essential equalityshould be the value basis. Practice also proved this conclusion. Formal equality ofsocial security for the disabled is bad for decommodification; hinders actual humanrights for the disabled, strengthens stratification effect; it is contrary to the politicalpursuit of social equlity and justice.By contrast, essential equality bases on theemphasize of result and cognize of different treatment, so that social society couldprovide sufficient external support, refrain from overly commodification; promotelegal human rights of the disabled to change available human right, is conducive tonarrow the gap between the healthy people and the disabled,menwhile is conduciveto share the fruits of social development.Since the substantive equality should be the evaluation of social security for thedisabled, meeting different needs is a key to achieve essential equality. Practice givesthe answer: social society is lack of independence as a supporting tool and is difficultto be on the right track. There must be an internal standard for the independence ofsocial security, this standard is human needs, because the essential of social security ismeeting human needs. Social security based on human needs is a practice of “peopleoriented”. Social security as a system meets human needs must closely connectedwith human needs, human needs are divers, and social security has to response to it.On the contrary, social security ignore the different needs will impend the disabled toacquire legal rights, and also cause dislocation of supply and demand. There are fourconflicts: pay most attention to contemporary security for the disabled, less attentionto the children of the disabled; pay most attention to ecnomic security for the disabled,less attention to medical or service security of the disabled; pay most attention toincome-producing povertyof the disabled, less attention to spending type poverty of the disabled; pay most attention to the formulation of the system, less attention tosupervise and implement. What is paid less attention to is jusr what the disabledimmediate needs. All these conflicts point to a key problem——social security ignorethe different needs may cause social welfare negative effects. Finally, this paper drawa conclusion: meeting different needs is a key to achieve essential equality for socialsecurity.The establishment of a special social security in response to different need is theimproving direction of social security for the disabled in China. Social security relatesclosely to needs, human needs provides a clear framework for the social securitysystem, and promote its development, the need theory is an important theory in socialwelfare system, and it provides the best view to analyze problems. Social securitybased on need must formulate different systems according to changes of human needs.So that it is possible for special social security to respond the different needs of thedisabled. The spirit of mutual help is the cultural heritage of China, which laid thecultural foundation and mass base;“The State Council Working Committee for theDisabled” and “China Disabled Persons Federation”at all levels laid theorganizationgal foundation; Chengdu, Sichuan Province explore new type of socialsecurity for the disabled actively, become a precedent that make special socialsecurity system according to the special needs of disabled persons. Social security forthe disabled in England is “small but comprehensive”,it provides careful and thoroughsecurity and service for the disabled people’s life and development through a series ofspecial subsidy, creates the maximum convenience for the life, study, work,rehabilitation of the disabled; Social security for the disabled in Japan takes thecombination of generality and particularity of social security,emphasizes theprincipal position of the rights of the disabled. All of these provide a practicalsignificance.This paper conceives a special social security for the disabled, which is called“Support system for the disabled”. It focus on the disabled, it is aimed at meeting allkinds of needs of the disabled, such as living,employment,medical,rehabilitation,education,service needs and their children’s education needs,mental health needs andso on. This paper uses “support” instead of “relief” to avoid sympathetic anddiscriminate attitude. Support system for the disabled requests starting with the needsof the disabled, acquire real data of needs through field survey, take the hearingsystem in the formulation of the system, set up a special fund in the central and local governments, perfect organization construction; strengthen the supervision systemand timely feedback information, try to make sure the “support system for thedisabled” is close to real needs of the disabled.