Practices, Dilemmas and Causes of Chile’s Population Aging Countermeasures— Also on the Enlightenment to China

Abstract

As a pioneer economy in global pension privatization reform, Chile is currently in the transition period of deep population aging. The adaptability of the original individual account pension system to the labor market structure continues to decline, and problems such as old-age poverty and social exclusion have become increasingly prominent. Carrying out relevant country-specific research has clear practical necessity. Based on the social exclusion theory and the multi-pillar old-age security analysis framework, this paper adopts policy text analysis and data research methods, combines official Chilean statistical data and two authoritative aging survey datasets, systematically sorts out Chile's aging response policy system, and analyzes the implementation dilemmas and underlying causes of the policies. The study finds that Chile has built a four-in-one policy framework covering legal protection, pension system, elderly care services and governance support. However, it still faces dilemmas such as low public institutional trust, unbalanced elderly security structure, multidimensional social exclusion of the elderly, and significant group security gaps. The causes stem from the multiple superposition of institutional path dependence, political fragmentation, fiscal constraints and age stereotypes. This research can provide Latin American perspective experience and policy enlightenment for China to improve its aging governance system and optimize the elderly security system.