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Welfare systems and adequacy of pension benefits in Europe
- Authors:
- GOUGH Orla, ADAMI Roberta
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Society, 11(1), January 2012, pp.41-53.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The public pension system is one of the major components of the welfare state in Europe. However, the extent to which public pensions are seen as a means of social and economic equality varies remarkability from country to country. Current pension benefits are mainly the legacy of decisions and arrangements made by political forces in power in the post-war years. The aim of this study of Ageing. The study analyses the mix of public and private pensions and considers the impact of different policies on poverty rates amongst pensioners. The findings suggest that only a few European countries have been successful in providing combinations of private and public pensions that improve the adequacy of retirement income.
Collective agreements on pensions as a source of solidarity
- Author:
- TRAMPUSCH Christine
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Comparative Social Welfare, 25(2), June 2009, pp.99-107.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
... in the literature and develops a two-dimensional scheme of four different concepts. It is argued that pensions based on industrial agreements may compensate to a certain degree for solidarity losses caused by retrenchment policies.
I'm OK, you're (not) OK: the private welfare state in the United States
- Author:
- PETERS B. Guy
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 39(2), April 2005, pp.166-180.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The American welfare state has been premised on the mixture of substantial private, tax-subsidized benefits rather than on more universalistic public benefits. That pattern is in some ways being undermined as private pension plans are increasingly going bankrupt and firms reduce the benefits they provide employees. On the other hand, however, the current Bush administration is attempting to enhance the private sector role by allowing individuals to invest at least a part of their social insurance contributions into private savings plans. These changes may in the end increase the role of the public sector as a regulator and underwriter at the same time that attempts are made to minimize public sector involvement.
From the Conservative welfare state to an uncertain something else: German pension politics in comparative perspective
- Authors:
- LAMPING Wolfram, RUB Friedbert W.
- Journal article citation:
- Policy and Politics, 32(2), April 2004, pp.69-91.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
The 2001 German pension reform represents the beginning of a new welfare politics of a new welfare state. It adds to the former exclusively pay-as-you-go financed public system a capital funded private pillar. This private pillar is a politically regulated welfare market. The new pension policy is a striking example of a structural reform in a politically risky policy field. This change was made possible by two processes: first, running out of options in respect of traditional concepts of problem solving and, second, a new experimental policy style. As a result, the new German welfare state is on an irrevocable path from a conservative welfare state to a new recombinant type mixing different elements of 'worlds of welfare'.
Social justice and the reform of social security
- Authors:
- WILSON Dorothy J., WILSON Thomas
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 29(4), December 1995, pp.335-344.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
There have been massive increases over the years in expenditure on the public services loosely grouped together as the 'welfare state', but widespread dissatisfaction persists. This article is a critique of the proposals for reform presented in the Report of the Commission on Social Justice, set up by the late John Smith.
Pension reforms in Europe and life-course politics
- Authors:
- MAIER Robert, de GRAAF Willibrord, FRERICKS Patricia
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 41(5), October 2007, pp.487-504.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In recent years, somewhat drastic pension reforms have taken place in all European countries. The pension systems developed in the last century are no longer considered to be suited to the changing demographic constellations in European countries, and the financial sustainability of these systems is under threat. Moreover, the changing political and economic set-up in European countries is also used to justify reforming the different pension systems. Different reasons can be given to explain the various pension reform measures without, however, there being any integrated coherence. The authors suggest that a politics of social policy, and of pension policy in particular, based on a life-course perspective, facilitates the understanding of the whole range of pension reform measures. In the past, the elaborated pension systems were attuned to a normative standard biography. A new standard biography, with different phases and more transitions and combinations, enables one to understand the variety of the ongoing pension reform measures. Such a life-course perspective integrates sequences of learning, working and caring considered necessary for the polity. In other words, it is based on a conception of human potential, and it integrates, to some extent, the previously separate domains of labour market policy, education policy, care policy and pension policy. However, recent theoretical and empirical studies of the life course lead to a critical evaluation of the new standard biography, with the conclusion that the new standard is one-sided and scientifically unsound, entailing challenges for social policy.
Client organizations in a corporatist country: pensioners' organizations and pension policy in Sweden
- Author:
- FELTENIUS David
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 17(2), May 2007, pp.139-151.
- Publisher:
- Sage
In this article, the relevance of Paul Pierson's argument about the important role played by organizations for welfare clients is scrutinized. This is done through a case-study of pensioners' organizations in Sweden and their influence on pension policy between 1980 and 2002. In terms of Pierson's argument, Sweden is considered to be a least likely candidate, because its strong labour movement is expected to crowd out other organized interests from the policy process. The investigation reveals, however, that pensioners' organizations have been able to exert influence on pension policy on different occasions. Their influence is explained by their high rating as an organization, which enables them to represent an important group of voters. These findings contradict previous research suggesting that client organizations are weak, particularly in corporatist countries with a strong labour movement, and demonstrate that Pierson's argument also has relevance in such countries.
The formation of social insurance institutions of the Baltic States in the post-socialist era
- Author:
- AIDUKAITE Jolanta
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 16(3), August 2006, pp.259-270.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This paper provides an overview of the differences that have emerged in the social insurance systems of the three Baltic countries since they regained their independence. It assesses how closely the institutional structures of social insurance in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania approximate to various ideal types of social security institutions to be found in the research literature. The findings indicate that, in general terms, the social security system of Estonia and Latvia can be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist model, even if there are also some weak elements of the targeted model. In contrast, it appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of welfare. Even if they started with identical social security institutions inherited from the Soviet period, there is not only similarity, but also diversity in how these countries are now addressing problems in the social policy field.
Decommodification and the worlds of welfare revisited
- Author:
- BAMBRA Clare
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 16(1), February 2006, pp.73-80.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article critically examines the theoretical, empirical and methodological limitations of Esping-Andersen’s Three Worlds of Welfare decommodification index. It highlights an, to date, overlooked error in Esping-Andersen’s original calculations that led to the incorrect positioning of three borderline countries (Japan, the UK and Ireland) and resulted in the empirically erroneous composition of the Three Worlds of Welfare. Updated decommodification data from 1998/99 are used to explore the influential role of variable weighting in the creation of the three worlds typology. Finally, the paper revisits the decommodification index to examine how the relationships between the countries have changed since 1980. The paper concludes by questioning the extent to which the Three Worlds of Welfare still exist, and indeed, at least in empirical terms, the extent to which they ever did.
Welfare-state decommodification in 18 OECD countries: a replication and revision
- Authors:
- SCRUGGS Lyle, ALLAN James
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 16(1), February 2006, pp.55-72.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The authors present and discuss a replication and reassessment of the welfare-state decommodification index, and introduce a new, publicly available data set of key welfare-state programme characteristics. Using the same programme features used to create the ‘decommodification index’ in The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, one of the most widely cited sources in the field, we are able to replicate the results quite closely. However, our investigation suggests a number of likely errors in the original formulation. Once these are accounted for, we find very limited empirical support for the ‘three worlds’ typology in the decommodification data. Though some clear differences remain, there is also much less overall variation among countries. Furthermore, there is little evidence of ‘clustering’ among programme scores, a finding which is at odds with the idea of distinctive national regimes. Our results point to the need for a detailed re-investigation of welfare-state benefits in advanced industrial democracies. Our data set helps to provide a basis for such an assessment.