Research On Public Participation In Social Security Policy-Making

Along with the strengthening of people's democratic awareness and the processing of civil society, political science scholars at home and abroad deeply study the necessity of public participation in public policy activities, and they ensure that is conducive to the scientific and democratic of social policy which represents public policy. According to the objective of a specific period, after selecting, integrating, distributing, and implementing the public interests, the government will formulate a series of norms, which are called public policy. As an important part of public policy, social security will safeguard and protect the vital interest, which involves many people, particularly needing public participation in this process. However, most of social security policies are made by government not the public. So it is necessary to clarify the importance of this issue, and arouse the government and public pay much attention to it.This paper tries to analyze the significance of public participation in social security field using the theory and methods of public policy and social security. The definition of public in this paper means social members, either individuals or legitimate groups, who are involved by social security policy. Public participation is also known as citizen participation, which means the public try to influence social policy and life.This paper discusses the necessity of public involving public policy-making on theoretical and practical aspects. Public choice theory, theory of people's sovereignty and civil society theory are all support public participation from different angles. Based on the government's malfunction, public choice theory proved the necessity of public participation. The other two theories discussed from people's democratic rights. In real life, the importance of public participation is represented by the following three aspects: public participation reflects the essence of social security system; public participation is the way to realize people's social security right; public participation is an indispensable part of improving social security policy.This paper points out that public participation in social security policy-making is a very urgent matter. For one thing, to build a harmonious society needs it, which can reduce conflicts and coordinate different interest groups. For another thing, the new problems in social security field need to be settled by it.This paper introduces current situation of public participation in social security policy-making, with both system and specific channels. China's Constitution stipulates that:"the people can manage state affairs, economic, culture and social undertakings, according to kinds of channels in accordance with the law."That is the most fundamental protection. Besides, the public can also participate through the people's congress, the hearing system, the petition system, social groups and the news media directly or indirectly. However, the lack of system and single channel are the problems.This paper discusses the consequences of lacking public participation and then points why it does happen. The absence of public participation not only can ruin the fair principle of social security policy, but also damage the smooth implementation of social policies. Apart from the economic level, it restricted by the lack of system, cultural tradition, individual ability, .etc. At last, the ways to improve the public participation in social security policy-making are clearly put forward, hoping through system and cultural awareness to improve social security polices, and thus more and more people can benefit from them.