How can we explain the pattern of pension reform in Europe?

Sciences politiques | 9 pages | 05-03-2006 | Format : | Note : Non noté

PRIX : 3.60€ |

Résumé

The pattern of pension reform in Europe can be better explained by reference to politics than to demography. Explain and evaluate this statement.

Extract:

Since the beginning of the nineties, welfare politics in Western Europe have been marked by growing concerns about pensions. In a context of low economic growth and high unemployment for the majority of European economies, policymakers began to worry that public pensions might become financially unsustainable, especially when they would have to face massive retirement from baby-boomers, due to start in the first decade of the next century. In the eighties, the Thatcher government had already begun to reform the British pension system towards a less expensive scheme and encouraged private savings. In the second half of the nineties, the dominant policy discourse in the European Union shifted to a rhetoric close to that of the British Third Way, emphasizing financial stability, high rates of employment and incentives to work. A recent document released jointly by the European Commission and the Council of the European Union thus advocates measures to raise participation rates among older workers and three pillar pension schemes, with public earnings-related schemes, private occupational schemes and individual retirement provisions.

Both Sweden and France have implemented pension reforms starting in the nineties and both operate Bismarckian types of pension arrangements, which are strongly biased towards contribution financed social insurance and operating on a pay as you go basis, and thus vulnerable to fiscal and demographic pressure . Some have argued that demography just serves as a pretext for retrenchment of the welfare state, inspired by neo liberal theory. Conversely, some have argued that pension reform in continental Europe has so far been insufficient to meet the challenges posed by an ageing population. The statement has also been made that the pattern of pension reform in Europe is better explained with reference to politics than to demography, meaning that the content of pension reform is first shaped by political considerations, and then by demographic imperatives. With reference to Sweden and France, this essay will argue that politics has shaped pension reform to a greater extent in France, although the patterns of reform in both countries have been heavily influenced by their inherent political and societal factors.

In a first part, we shall look at the prospects for French and Swedish pension systems before looking more closely at each country and drawing conclusions about their different pathways to reform ...

Recommandations

Du même auteur

Nouveautés dans la rubrique Sciences politiques

Les plus visités dans la matière Sciences politiques