英文摘要 |
It is debated that, on the one hand, social insurance programmes, and specifically pension insurance that is focused on in this paper, are the schemes to represent the theory of social contract and social solidarity, for the reason that they intend to achieve equality and income security as well as to improve the effectiveness of redistributing resources. On the other hand, however, it is also argued that this sort of programme jeopardises the freedom of choice. Nevertheless, it is recognised by most of the governments in the world that social insurance schemes in effect develop along with the society in order to meet people’s need and compensate those who suffer from risks covered by the social security programmes. This paper, for one thing, further looks into the arguments from the philosophic, legal and economic viewpoints in order to elaborate the links between the theory and social insurance per se. For another thing, this paper takes the pension reforms in Germany and Sweden as examples to discuss whether the pension automatic adjustment mechanism is the contemporary form of social contract. It illustrates that the automatic adjustment schemes, to a great extent, fulfil the ideas of social contract theorem, and therefore would be an appropriate strategy for modifying benefit levels and other parameters related to pension insurance programmes. Some propositions for further pension reforms are discussed and concluded in the last part. |