From Humanity To Human Rights

Welfare state is a kind of state form which reinforces state’s social function. It provides the citizens with stable living standard guarantee, as well as social rights. That is to say, human, as a real being of its own, should live with dignity. The paper firstly introduces the social relief system of England and Sweden. Then it leads to the conclusion that the ethical value it implies is that the social welfare system has the basis of humanism, and the essence is metaphysical. The legitimacy of the welfare provided by the state is ethically self-explanatory, and the poor can reasonably ask for the welfare relief in order to have a decent living. This ethical right is the basis of social relief system.From the due "ethical rights", the legitimacy of social relief system can be logically proven:the goal of state is to protect every citizen’s life, freedom and happiness. Therefore, when people can no longer survive under situations beyond control, they can reasonably ask for the welfare relief in order to have a decent living. We can also put it in another way that when people legally have an ethical right, the state shall not offence it, and furthermore, the state shall guarantee its realization.Along with the long history, China’s social relief system has stepped into the government-oriented stage and forged ahead in the systematic direction of standardization and institutionalization. The traditional relief theory has been changed into modern civil rights relief theory. The relief mode has become more institutional. The relief system has shift from basic life guarantee to comprehensive rescue. However, The relief system has many deficiencies such as low relief level, narrow coverage, stigma brought to the poor, the lack of legal protection and welfare rights relief.Given all above, the author puts forward several suggestions, the key way of the further-development of China social relief system is to define the responsibility of the State for social relief, and meanwhile, the shift from the ethical rights to legal rights. Thus, the poor could have a decent living guaranteed on institutional level.