THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN SOCIAL SECURITY A Comparative Analysis Between China and the United States

This paper compares the social security systems of the People's Republic of China and the United States and analyzes the role of government in a social security system. We focus the comparative analysis on three aspects: concept and content of a social security system, existing social security (welfare) policies, and social security administration and finance. We show that the governments of both countries hold a common ideology about social security systems, including the composition of social security (welfare), social insurance policies, and administration of social security. However, the differences in the social assistance and policy of intergovernmental finances are obvious. These differences make the Chinese social security policy less effective than that of the United States. This finding suggests that the Chinese government should rethink its social security system, adjust its social insurance policy, push for reform of its social assistance system, and strengthen the intergovernmental assistance for future social security.