Study On The Improvement Of The Legislation For Rural Endowment Insurance

With the development of China's economy, the advancement of its society, the implementation of the birth control policy, the increase of the Chinese people's standard of living, and the acceleration of our country's urbanization and industrialization, the life expectancy becomes longer and longer, and the aging issue becomes more and more prominent. Due to the weakening of the safeguard function of the family and the land, the system of the aged being supported by the family, which was once quite popular, can on longer find its inherent basis. Inevitably, the old age support in the rural area is gradually being socialized. Determined by the urban-rural binary social and economic structure, however, social endowment insurance is differentiated between the city and the countryside. It is hard for the rural residents to enjoy the same social welfare as the urban ones. The legislation perfection of social endowment insurance in the rural area is thus of great urgency. Up to now, our nation has not come up with one single law addressing the issue of rural social endowment insurance. The guideline for rural endowment insurance is merely The Fundamental Program of County-Level Rural Social Endowment Insurance, which was promulgated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs as early as 1992, and the relevant local laws.The problems in the existing legislative system of social endowment insurance in China's rural area are as follows. Firstly, the legislation proceeds slowly and falls short of the objectives of the development of rural social endowment insurance. Secondly, an abnormal large number of laws are made by the local legislatures rather than the higher-level ones. Thirdly, the legislation is disciplined or guided by no strict criteria. Fourthly, many rules in the existing laws are out of date or unfeasible, and therefore revision is an urgent requirement. China is a developing country with rural residents occupying more than 70 percent of its total population. Perfecting its legislation of social endowment insurance in the rural area is of great significance. Firstly, with the solution of the old age support of rural residents, social harmony in the countryside will be achieved. Secondly, the birth concept of rural residents will be changed, which will be beneficial for the development of the rural population. Thirdly, the economic development of the rural area will be boosted, which will lead to a reasonable flow of the rural population. Fourthly, with the startup of the rural market, domestic demand will be enlarged.To perfect the legislation of social endowment insurance in the rural area, we can learn from other countries. Experiences in Germany, France and Japan indicate that a country's rural social endowment insurance has to be in conformity with its specific national conditions and be in possession of its own distinct national characteristics, and can be established only after continuous exploration. Hence, only by establishing a new social endowment insurance system in the rural area that not only accords with China's national conditions but also links with social endowment insurance in the urban area can we basically solve the old age support problem of rural residents. The rural social endowment insurance system must be legalized. The legislation must be gradual and diversified, with great respect for the national conditions. The government must play an important role in the legislation. Fundamental principles of equally protecting rural residents' basic existence, of being justice-orientated, of paying attention to efficiency, of combining reality and ideality together, and of combining unity and flexibility together must be adhered to. Besides, the construction of the exterior environment must be strengthened to increase rural residents' financial affordability in taking part in social endowment insurance and ultimately lead rural social endowment insurance to a healthy and orderly development.Theoretically speaking, establishing a nationwide scientific, systematic, disciplined, urban-rural integrated, normative, and unified social endowment insurance system with Chinese characteristics is the tendency of the development of social endowment insurance reforms. In view of our country's current economic development and in-rooted binary administrative system, however, the paper proposes a more realistic choice; that is, a disciplined legal system of rural social endowment insurance should be established and perfected as soon as possible, and then when the economic conditions permit, an urban-rural integrated social endowment insurance system should be realized. To ensure the authority and stability of the rural social endowment insurance system, Rural Social Endowment Insurance Law should be enacted by the National People's Congress or its committees, and local rules and regulations must conform to the national law. The objective is to establish an elementary legal system of social endowment insurance in the rural area that accommodates itself to the socialist market economy by the year 2010, and to establish a comprehensive, diversified, and perfect legal system of rural social endowment insurance that covers all rural residents and possesses appropriate standards by the year 2020, i. e., before the arrival of the ageing peak of the rural population.