District-level Government Role Localization Analysis Of Urban Pension Service Socialization Process

Since1999, China is stepping into a rank of ageing population, with the biggestaged population in the world, as is expected to be over200million at the end of2013. Influenced by Confucian tradition of "filial piety", pension services mainly relyon the family. However, with the parents of one-child families gradually into theranks of the elderly, as well as the family structure getting smaller, family caringcapacity for the aged is gradually weakened, calls from families to society for thepension services are being raised. Rapidly growing demand for pension services withacute shortage of social services supply, makes it become a real demand to build andimprove urban old-aged socialization service system. Pension service is an importantsocial welfare, whose quasi-public property determines the governments importantrole in the development of socialization of old-age services.This paper takes YP district in Shanghai as research object. The district enteredageing society as early as1979that, was characterized by the features of the currentcity in our country-"city population ageing, ageing population with high age, andtendency of no child living with the aged". On the other hand, as an old industrial cityin Shanghai and even in China, the financial tension of local government, limitedsocial resources for pension services, and the lag of ageing industry development etc.further enhance YP district’s difficulties and stress confronting the trend of ageingpopulation. So rational role repositioning for district-level government, with YPdistrict as an example, is beneficial not only to promote the development ofsocialization of pension services, but also to provide a first-hand material withgeneral significance. This is the practical significance of this paper. During theresearch, the paper mainly uses the approach of literature research, interviews,comparison and analysis, and observation. Relevant theories, former researches,regulations and policies, and practice experience was re-arranged at first. The“suitable” standard of the government in the socialization development of pensionservices was probed. And with such standard, the implementation during pensionservices and detailed phenomena of "absence" and "offside" of YP government is analyzed. At last, regarding to the universality of such "absence" and "offside",recommends and measures are proposed for the "return" for positioning ofdistrict-level government during pension services socialization process.This paper is divided into four parts.In the introduction of Chapter I, research background is described, the agingpopulation situation and background of promoting pension service socializationdevelopment is analyzed, and the problem to be researched is proposed-that isgovernment role positioning in the development process of the city endowmentservice socialization. Secondly, meaning of the research is described. Governmentrole positioning helps in-depth implementing the requirements of "developingelderly social service" in the new "elder law", helps promoting government functionsshift (properly release the power, accurately administrate), helps in-depths improvingthe “social old-age service system based on complete home building, community,institution support. Next, the paper defined the three definitions of "pension service","pension service socialization " and " government role".Afterwards, the formerresearch of government role positioning in the socialization process of pensionservice made by some experts and scholars is teased apart.In Chapter II, the district-level government role in the process of city pensionservices is "suitably" probed. Firstly, theoretical basis was proposed, including "newpublic service theory","public governance theory". Secondly, law and policy basiswas proposed, including the government responsibility regulated by “Constitution”and “Ederly rights protection law of Peoples Republic of China”, government rolesrequired by nation and Shanghai policies. Thirdly, basis of practice experience wasproposed. Some typical experience cases in pension service social model activitieswas listed, Including "Shengzhou mode" in Zhejiang,"Gulou mode" in Nanjing,relevant experience from Xuhui district in Shanghai, providing practice support forgovernment role positioning. Lastly, through specific probing of four roles thedistrict-level government should play in pension services socialization process(leading role in pension services, guiding role of social power, supervision role inpension services, maintenance role of fairness and justice) and roles’ connotation, this paper tries to establish one analysis frame of “suitable” district-level governmentroles during pension service socialization process.In Chapter III, taking YP government as an example, the status of district-levelgovernment promoting the old-age socialization service is analyzed. Firstly,combining four roles proposed in Chapter II that district-level government shouldplay, implementation situation of YP government was summarized. Secondly, thecommends of the performance of YP government roles from neighborhood andsocial organization, and the assess of elderly on pension service demand and qualityin YP district, are summarized. Thirdly, based on the aforementioned, the "absence"and "offside" of YP government in the process of promoting pension servicessocialization was found out.In Chapter IV, based on the analysis and probing in Chapter II and III, regardingto the general problems of "absence" and "offside" of district-level governmentduring pension services socialization process, some specific recommends about howto “return” and reach “suitable” standard are proposed.