Reforming old age security systems : a comparative analysis of institutional change in France, Germany and Sweden

Gronwald, Mareike

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URL:	https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/36584
URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-365841
Document Type:	Doctoral dissertation
Year of publication:	2012
Place of publication:	Mannheim
University:	Universität Mannheim
Evaluator:	Ebbinghaus, Bernhard
Date of oral examination:	22 November 2013
Publication language:	English
Institution:	School of Social Sciences > Soziologie III, Makrosoziologie (Ebbinghaus 2004-16)
Subject:	300 Social sciences, sociology, anthropology
Subject headings (SWD):	Alterssicherung , Betriebliche Altersversorgung , Deutschland , Drei-Säulen-Konzept , Europa , Frankreich , Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung , Institutionalismus , Neoinstitutionalismus , Private Altersvorsorge , Privatisierung , Rentenpolitik
Individual keywords (German):	Institution , Rentenreform , Rentensystem , Schweden , Internationaler Vergleich , Westeuropa , Wandel , Wohlfahrtsstaat
Keywords (English):	Europe , France , Germany , Historical Institutionalism , Institutional Change , International Comparison , Occupational Pensions , Pension Policy , Old Age Security , Pension Reform , Privatisation , Public-Private Mix , Sweden , Welfare State
Abstract:	During the last three decades increasing financial pressures on European welfare states have triggered a series of social policy reforms, leading to some significant changes, especially with regard to old age security systems. The shift from largely pay-as-you-go financed public pillar pension systems to multipillar pension systems with a stronger emphasis on funded private pensions and individual responsibilities has called traditional arguments on path dependency and institutional stability into question. There have been controversial debates in the welfare state literature about how to interpret these pension privatisation trends in terms of the scope of institutional change, the nature and patterns of the reform process and the factors that shape and explain institutional transformations. Following the most recent discussions on historical institutionalist theories, this dissertation analyses the developments towards multi-pillar pension systems in France, Germany and Sweden, assessing the degree of change and identifying the mechanisms that facilitated institutional transformations as well as the conditions under which they were activated.