Civil society and the right to have access to social security in South Africa

This article examines transformation in South Africa's social security system from a human rights and civil society perspective. Three claims are made: rights can be realised by civil society organisations, civil society organisations can transform social security, and the realisation of social security rights by civil society organisations can give us a means to address many of the problems identified with the involvement of NGOs in development. The basis of this assessment is a performative conception of rights, derived from the Grootboom legal judgment, which would allow civil society action to address the problems inherent in the social security system in South Africa. An analysis is thus made of this kind of public action and it is shown how it can be subsumed under the 1996 South African Constitution, and how the Constitution could transform civil society organisations' social action. Civil society action, it is proposed, could be valuable in further reforming the South African social security system, and in realising rights as autonomous social action.     

How social security policies and economic transformation affect poverty and inequality: Lessons for South Africa

This article examines how various characteristics of social and economic policy frameworks affect poverty and inequality levels in developing countries, principally in Botswana and Mauritius. The research findings suggest that poverty and inequality are lower in countries with generous and broad-based – rather than pro-poor – social security policies, and where social policies are complemented by economic policies promoting economic transformation rather than mere economic growth. While South Africa's challenges of combating poverty and inequality are shaped by its own historical context, the lessons from other countries offer the opportunity to reflect on the social consequences of various social and economic policy mixtures. In particular, it may be worth considering how to bridge the divide between the economically productive contributors to social security policies and the economically marginalised beneficiaries of such policies.     

Social security for young people amidst high poverty and unemployment: Some policy options for South Africa

South African youth experience extremely high levels of unemployment and poverty. Currently there is no social assistance for low-income young adults in South Africa unless they are disabled. Interventions are needed that can achieve widespread poverty alleviation, as well as help facilitate economic participation to improve lifelong earnings. In this article, six examples of social security policy options are considered, including five grants ranging from an unconditional non-means-tested grant for young people to a conditional grant for young people in training or education, plus an ‘Opportunities voucher’ that is administered through the social security system but paid out to organisations offering youth education or work opportunities. Using a tax and benefit microsimulation model to simulate the five grants, we estimate the potential numbers reached and cost, as well as the impact of these six options on poverty.     

论我国建立普惠型社会保障制度的必要性

我国已经进入社会经济发展转型和人口转型的特殊阶段，建立普惠型社会保障制度刻不容缓。文章通过对西方社会保障发达国家普惠型社会保障制度的分析，指出普惠型社会保障不仅对社会发展具有积极的指引作用，还能有效地促进和推动经济健康发展。文章认为，我国作为一个快速发展的工业化国家，应当建立起普惠型社会保障制度，来解决老百姓的各种生活后顾之忧，社会才能实现和谐，经济才能持续发展，文明才会不断进步。     

社会保障制度促进经济增长机制研究

传统学派一般把社会保障制度作为一种社会公平制度进行研究,较少考虑其对经济增长的作用,但是由于社会保障可以影响消费者未来预期和人力资本投资,所以不可避免的会对经济增长产生影响。本文从凯恩斯乘数理论入手,结合人力资本投资,对社会保障制度促进经济增长的机制进行分析。     

Economic Efficiency and Ethics

In neo-classical welfare economics efficiency and equity are strictly separated. The emergence of New Institutional Economics (NIE) broadens the perspective by focusing on the implications of opportunist behaviour. In NIE emphasis is put on institutional arrangements that improve efficiency. The introduction of opportunist behaviour points at the more general problem of cooperation. As can be illustrated by invoking the Prisoners' Dilemma, cooperation may improve efficiency. Therefore, social norms matter and the question arises how they evolve. Evolutionary game theory shows how economic success may change behavioural dispositions to honesty or dishonesty. On a less abstract level one can investigate whether or not the market system fosters nice social traits. Apart from the approach chosen, the main message is that economics and ethics are strongly intertwined.     

国外社保整合对我国碎片化养老保险制度改革的经验和启示

目前,我国养老保险制度碎片化的状况比较严重。文章分析了我国养老保险制度碎片化的现状,发现其造成了公平和效率的严重失衡,并且产生了影响社会的稳定和发展的弊端。文章借鉴英、法、美等西方国家在社保整合方面所采取的管理体制改革和养老金制度改革等整合社会养老保险制度的措施,总结经验和教训,为我国的碎片化养老保险制度改革提供思路,以期促进我国养老保险事业的健康发展和制度的不断完善。     

Poverty measures and definitions

In this article an attempt is made to explain what poverty means and how it is measured. Absolute income measures are discussed with reference to England, America, Australia and South Africa. These encompass the poverty line, the social security administration measure, the Henderson poverty line, the South African poverty datum line and the poverty gap. Relative income measures of poverty used in England, America and Australia are described. Absolute measures of poverty, the income‐net worth approach, a definition that includes other resources and a balance sheet method are explained. Socio‐economic measures are dealt with. These include the sociological concept of poverty, socio‐economic status measures and the culture of poverty view. Other measures described are public dependency and residential measures, mortality measures, a normative measure and subjective poverty.     

Public utility pricing and regional development in South Africa

The paper considers the effects of public utility pricing in respect of (i) the rail transport of goods, (ii) electricity supply and (iii) irrigation water in the pursuit of economic efficiency and regional development, both of which represent objectives of economic policy in South Africa. It appears that public utility prices deviate significantly from the resource costs of the respective services supplied and generally tend to have greater impact on economic efficiency than on regional development. Moreover, it may well be the case that the South African economy has not yet reached an unequivocal trade‐off state between economic efficiency and regional equity. It is therefore suggested that public utility pricing be directed at achieving a more efficient pattern of resource allocation, while regional development be promoted by measures to stimulate internal and external economies of scale.     

保障性住房建设亟需解决的几个问题

随着住房保障时代的到来,如何更好地提供保障性住房成为一个重要的理论和现实问题。保障性住房具有较强的公共性是一种准公共产品,它是与商品房制度互为补充的,经济适用房和廉租方式是其两种主要形式。保障性住房唯一的功能是保障基本居住权,因此投资功能应被屏蔽。政府应通过适当的方式防止保障性住房的平民窟问题,实现社会的和谐发展。     

河北省社会保障制度改革——历史沿革与路径分析

文章回顾了河北省社会保障制度改革的历程并作了简要评价,认为要加快河北省社会保障制度改革,必须坚持公平原则,重新界定政府在社会保障制度改革中的角色定位;加快建立公共财政制度,完善转移支付机制;完善面向弱势群体的社会保障制度;以养老保险和医疗保险为突破口,扩大社会保险的覆盖面。     

关于农民工社会保障问题的思考

从农民工社会保障现状出发，通过对农民工社会保障公平性和制度设计的思考，旨在强调农民工社会保障构建的必要性和探索农民工社会保障制度在实施中的可行性。指出在目前还不具备建立一元社会保障制度、且一元社会保障在差别社会未必是公平社会保障模式的情况下，应构建以长期目标与城镇社会保障体系接轨的．以“底线保障”为基础的分类分层农民工社会保障制度模式。     

构建城乡一体化社会保障制度之浅见——以比较中西方社会保障的制度基础为角度

社会保障制度作为现代国家最重要的社会经济制度之一,具有社会"安全网"和社会"减震器"的功能。构建和谐社会,促进社会经济持续、健康发展总是离不开社会保障,因此,在我国尽快构建起城乡一体化的社会保障制度就显得尤为重要。而西方发达国家有着比较完善的城乡一体化的社会保障制度,值得我国去比较和学习。本文将通过对中西方构建社会保障的制度基础进行比较分析,从而说明我国构建城乡一体化的社会保障制度需要注意的一些问题。     

论农民工的社会保障问题

农民工为城市创造了巨大的社会效益和经济效益,但他们大多数仍处于社会保障体制之外。本文通过分析农民工社会保障的现状、形成原因及解决农民工社会保障制度的现实意义,提出了建立和完善农民工社会保障制度的几点措施。     

Family formation and economic insecurity among youth in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Youth unemployment continues to be a burden and concern for the South African government. Being economically insecure, the situation is dire with the government needing to provide resources to a population who should be economically independent. There is a need to look at the social determinants of economic insecurity among youth in South Africa. Family formations could either promote or inhibit economic well-being. This article aims to assess whether economic security improves as youth enter into unions and/or have children. The South African National Income Dynamics Study is used. Unmarried youth with no children are measured at baseline (2008) and followed up over time to examine whether economic security status changes as union status changes. Results show that while economic security, employment (from 7.61% to 25.67%) and net income per month (from 19.48% to 32.79%) increase over time, youth who marry but have no children have the lowest risk of economic insecurity (relative risk ratio?=?0.02, p < 0.05) compared with those who remain unmarried but have children. Special attention needs to be given to youth who have children and are unmarried and among those who marry and have children soon after.     

Social Assistance Amidst the COVID-19 Epidemic in South Africa: A Policy Assessment

In an attempt to minimise the negative economic impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable households the South African government allocated R50 billion in additional social assistance spending. The cash transfer package included a temporary increase in existing grants and introduced a new “Covid grant.” We assess the chosen package and compare it with an initial proposal to increase the Child Support Grant (CSG). Coverage, cost and welfare effects are calculated to measure the relative impacts in each case. We find that while a significant increase in the CSG delivers resources most progressively, the addition of the COVID-19 grant may potentially reach a much larger group of otherwise uncovered, vulnerable individuals. Critically, this extended coverage comes at a cost to the poorest households, via additional transfers to the upper income deciles. However, we identify several categories of vulnerable household groups which suggests that the workers most negatively affected by the pandemic are not necessarily those in the poorest households. The paper emphasises that social assistance to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19 should not be viewed necessarily as a standard poverty reduction exercise, but rather as an attempt to mitigate COVID-19-related income shocks for the vulnerable who were most negatively affected by the pandemic.     

强化政府收入分配职能的必要性及对策思路

收入分配是经济社会生活的重要方面,而收入分配政策是关系收入分配公平与否最直接、最核心的要素。因此,政府作为资源配置的重要主体之一、作为政策的直接制定者势必应该强化其收入分配职能,进而逐步缩小收入分配差距和贫富差距,实现社会公平与社会正义。     

发展型社会保障制度:建构我国社会保障制度的目标选择

随着市场经济的持续快速增长,我国原有的城乡社会保障体系显现出了明显的滞后性。因此,借鉴国外经验,有必要建立适合我国国情的发展型社会保障制度。发展型社会保障制度必须符合我国国情并有利于经济的发展,立足于保障劳动者的就业,体现全民共享性。促进充分就业是社会保障新架构的核心内容。构建发展型社会保障制度,应当制定长远规划,维护社会保障制度框架的系统完整,明确各主体的法律责任,实现筹资渠道的多元化,提高社会保险统筹层次。     

South African social security under apartheid and beyond 1

Under apartheid, the trappings of a welfare state for whites were created. Over time, social security was gradually extended to other groups, and recently social assistance benefits were equalised. This left South Africa with high social security levels for a middle‐income developing country. However, the social security system still largely reflects the historical needs of vulnerable white groups under apartheid, among whom unemployment was minimal, given their preferential access to jobs and education. Thus the social security system now has inadequate provision for the most vulnerable, the unemployed. In contrast, four out of five pensioners receive a means‐tested social pension — a major poverty‐alleviating factor in rural black communities. This article analyses the social security system against the backdrop of apartheid and the more recent democratisation, and assesses its major deficiencies, the forces acting for its expansion and the binding fiscal constraint.     

是FDI导致中国经济“冰火两重天”?——基于省级面板数据的检验

FDI被认为是经济高速增长与居民消费严重不足"冰火两重天"式奇特现象的重要答案。本文使用1990～2009年中国省级面板数据进行的实证检验表明,FDI推动中国经济增长的同时也提高了居民人均消费支出,其影响的主要渠道可能是增加当地居民收入和地方政府社保支出份额。文章设想的FDI负向影响居民人均消费支出的社会保障支出份额效应虽然有迹象表明是存在的,但其效应被FDI增加地方政府社保支出份额效应所抵消。文章设想的FDI负向影响居民人均消费支出的收入不平等效应则被证实是不存在的。在此基础上本文得出结论,中国经济"冰火两重天"现象的原因可能需要从经济体系内部寻找,强势政府和要素市场扭曲可能才是根源,FDI流入一定程度上还修正了这种制度的缺陷。