中国与欧洲就业刺激政策的比较.docx

1、中国与欧洲就业刺激政策的比较The Practice of Activation in China1. IntroductionIn the early 1990s, most western countries were plunged into recessions and experienced great changes in social structures, which brought the pressures to welfare states in Europe. The problems of high unemployment had been increasingly

2、 prominent and spreading throughout the Europe. Under new challenges, many governments realized that there was a need to act together at EU level and to find solutions through closer and longer cooperation. On the basis of the new provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty and launched at the Luxembourg Job

3、 Summit, the European Employment Strategy (EES) came out and developed successfully (Wikipedia). It was a significant shift from passive policies to active measures and contributed to solve problems concerning labour market in Europe. China, on the other side of the world, was also confronted with p

4、rofound changes in social and economic systems in 1990s. During the course of transformation, the problems of unemployment emerged and then rapidly become unprecedented pressure to the society. As a consequence, the government attempted to adopt active ways to improve the labour-market policies. Alt

5、hough the great differences in politics, economics and cultures between China and EU, there were similarities shared by them in incentives of policy reforms that was to meet the need of changing internal and external environments. This paper will first discuss the background of the employment policy

6、 reform in China, and then use the framework of activation to reflect on the EES and further analyze the activation policies in China to see how the policies comfort to the activation. 1.1 Activation policies in EuropeEmployment is a fundamental source of empowerment and equality, and to prevent une

7、mployment has always been a priority goal of the labour movement. Some people claimed that unemployment inevitably entails powerlessness, loss of autonomy and social marginalization, regardless of economic compensation. Sometimes it is even claimed that generous welfare arrangements make things wors

8、e. Firstly, labour-market economist have argued that generous social protection and labour-market regulation give the unemployed too little incentive to work and keeps reservation wages at a level where the market cannot provided a sufficient number of jobs for the less skilled. As a consequence, ma

9、ny less skilled people become entrapped in long-term unemployment. Secondly, unemployment may lead to welfare dependency which turns citizens into demanding clients sometimes (Goul et al.P77-78).From the viewpoint of active citizenship, a citizen is expected to be autonomous and self-responsible, as

10、 well as flexible and extremely mobile. Active citizens are expected to be able to create their biography individually and adapt it continuously to changing external conditions (Goul et al.P7). Those unemployed who are disadvantaged and marginalized are supposed to be activated so that they can obta

11、in the ability to exploit opportunities and control their own lives. The call for activation policy first and foremost implies a direct linkage between different kinds of social protection systems and labour-market participation. There is no longer a clear distinction between different labour-market

12、 policy and social policy, since the society aims at making all citizens active regardless what kind of income transfer payments they receive. In that sense, social policy is much more labour-market oriented than before (Goul et al.P136). Activation refers to job training (in the form of a subsidize

13、d temporary job) or education, with the strongly emphasized aim of bringing people back to employment (Goul et al.vii). Influenced by recommendations from OECD and European Commission the call for a shift from passive income transfer payments to active employment measures has become more and more po

14、pular (Goul et al.P135). During the past decades, most European welfare states have adapted some kinds of activation policy in their overall unemployment policy. The new active line in labour market and social policy has been introduced under different names in the different countries. These active

15、measures have been of prime importance in reforming welfare systems and in stimulating or forcing labour-market participation of unemployed (Goul et al.P137). 1.2 The European Employment Strategy (EES)On the basis of the new provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty, the Luxembourg European Council of Nove

16、mber 1997 initiated the European Employment Strategy (EES), also known as the Luxembourg process. In the 1990s, political consensus developed around the structural nature of Europes employment problem and on the need to increase the employment intensity of growth. Both the monetary stabilization pol

17、icy, followed to prepare for Economic and Monetary Union, and the common nature of the employment and unemployment challenge, provided the impetus for a more co-ordinated employment oriented policy response at European level (eu-employment-). The Treaty of Amsterdam introduced the concept of a Europ

18、ean Employment Strategy, following on from the integrated strategy for employment launched at the Essen European Council in December 1994.At Essen, the European Council had asked the Member States to draw up multiannual programmers for employment (MAPs) and to provide the Commission with reports on

19、their implementation. These reports describe the main measures taken by the governments to apply their multiannual programmes over the previous twelve months, assess, in certain cases, the impact of those measures on employment, and announce major changes or new initiatives in this field (the Wikipe

20、dia).The Lisbon European Council in 2000, while continuing to call for greater efforts to reduce the still high numbers of unemployed people, set full employment as an overarching long term goal for the new European economy. The Nice European Council of December 2000 introduced the issue of quality

21、as the guiding thread of the Social Policy Agenda, and in particular quality in work as an important objective of the EES. It stressed the multi-dimensional character of the quality issue, concerning both job characteristics and the wider labour market context, and stated that it should be promoted

22、through actions across the pillars. The Barcelona European Council in March 2002 identified Active policies towards full employment: more and better jobs amongst the three areas requiring specific impetus. It underlined that full employment in the EU is at the core of the Lisbon strategy and constit

23、utes the essential goal of economic and social policies. (eu-employment-).2. Research questionsAfter the oil shock in 1970s, traditional welfare states in Europe experienced weak growth in prospect and the increase of unemployed population. High unemployment compensation provided by the government n

24、ot only led to the rise of public expenditure but weakened the motivations of job seekers, which resulted in a vicious cycle and the country eventually ran into the unemployment crisis. The policy reform in China may share similarity with Europe in context which involving social and economic restruc

25、turing. The first question is:Q1: What is the context of the introduction of activation policies in China? The EES emphasizes the commitment of the EU to promote employment and includes a process that defines common objections relation to employment policy, together with guidelines for the developme

26、nt of the employment policies of member states (Goul et al.viii). It is a kind of soft law based on four components to better coordinate employment policies with macroeconomic and microeconomic policies of the EU. Monitored and guided by the EES, member states have made adjustment to their labour ma

27、rket policies in accordance with the Guidelines to meet the common targets. The government of China has introduced new policies (so called with Chinese characteristics) to promote the employment. The framework of the process was formed in the year 2002. According to the central guiding policy, regio

28、nal governments have carried out activation policies. Unlike countries with matured capital and labour market in Europe, China are lacking of a sound labour force market system to achieve the efficient allocation of labour resources, and there are no perfect welfare system. So the second question sh

29、ould be proposed:Q2: How do activation policies work in China?3. The transitions of employment policies in China3.1 Socialist employment policies (1950s-1970s)Since foundation of socialist China, central planning had been regarded the basic economic policy. Thus, the employment policies were based o

30、n the socialist principles which were called centralized job placement system. The government distributed labour forces to various industrial sectors by administrative means. That is, Individuals had no access to choose their jobs and positions. There was no free and open labour market in the countr

31、y since all the enterprises were state owned who were not authorized to recruit and dismiss employees. The salaries and welfare one received were from the provision of the state rather than the enterprise. There was no such unemployment insurance since people had to work in one enterprise all his li

32、fe until retirement under this system (Zhang, 2009). 3.2 After the opening reform (1970s-1990s)At the end of 1978, the government of China began to carry out the reform and opening-up policy, shift from the planned economy and the semi-closed state to the market economy and the open state. Along wit

33、h the practice of the reform, the employment policies experienced adjustments under the guiding principle of three-in-one combination (san jie he) which defines three approaches of employment: through both national allocation and application on ones own initiative, and also encouraging self-employment to promote t