Research On The Patterns Of Rural Elderly Security During The Period Of Social Transformation

At present, our country is in the key period of social transformation, which in itself means transformation from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society and transformation from the period of planned economy to period of marketed economy. From the perspective of world history, it is every time the world experience important transformation that it brings about lots of social problems, supporting the old in the rural areas is one of them.The old aged 60 and above in our country has accounted for 10ï¼…of the total population since 1999, thus from then on, China has become an aged country. However, we are experiencing the aging process while we are not rich enough. therefore, supporting the old in the poor countryside is of much importance because about 70ï¼…of the aged people live there.Family support for the elderly, based on the filial piety advocated by Confucianism, has been the main elderly-care pattern in China for several thousand of years. After liberation, we have founded a dualistic elderly security system, taking family support for the elderly alongside with collectivity elderly security of the people's commune as the major model in the countryside while social security as the major model in the cities since 1956. However, with the reform and opening-up policy adopted in 1978, collectivity elderly security has become almost impossible. And family of peasants has become increasingly nuclearized and minimized owing to the implement of family planning policy. Moreover, with the rapid pace of urbanization and industrialization, the size of floating population comprising mainly young peasants is on the rise. As a result family support for the elderly can hardly play the "major role" in the rural area as some government officials and experts expected.After a careful analysis of the current social, economic and demographic conditions in China, the paper points out that we should establish a new rural elderly security pattern system, which is a contingent and transitional multi-pillar system establishment. As the starting point is the traditional agricultural society and the destination is the modern industrial society during the transformation period, family support for the elderly, in accordance with the former will inevitably be transferred to social pension security which is compatible with the latter. But it is such a long process that the rural elderly security reform is seemingly a process too. So the pattern must be transitional and contingent, adapted to the condition of a particular period (district). Further more, our rural elderly security system should be a multi-pillar one, thus can get more resource from different levels to get rid of social risk from various dimensions.The patterns included in the multi-pillar system are as follows: rural family support for the elderly will continue to play important role, but it can hardly play the major role any more, self-supply should be emphasized in the future, and third party can also add up to the course, even the reciprocal pattern based on the clan (neighborhood)is also a rational choice in the rural society. Last but not the least, rural social pension security, being the tendency of the social development will be the most important pillar in the end.All in all, the paper analyzes the history, current situation and the challenge faced of the rural elderly security pattern. According to the theory concerned and the comparison with the relevant practice of foreign countries, the author puts forth his suggestion, that is, the contingent, transitional and multi-pillar system establishment. The creative points of this system establishment lie in three elements below. First of all, based on the real condition of social transformation, it puts forward a contingent establishment, which means the system establishment for a particular moment or area should be tailored to the very situation, for social transformation itself is a improving and changing process, so every so-called unified and rigid system, however perfect it is, can not be readily applied to all parts of china promptly for lack of enough flexibility. Secondly, though it has many diverse forms, the transitional system establishment suggested has a definite destination with the development of society. Finally, the efficiency of the third party and the practicability of the reciprocal elderly security based on clan(neighborhood)in the rural elderly security have not been elaborated in other research of this kind ever before. In conclusion, this paper is not only helpful to the exploration of the scope of rural elderly security in theory, but also beneficial to the rule-making of the governmental officials in practice.