The Politics of Pension Reform: Institutions and Policy Change in Western Europe

by Giuliano Bonoli

• ISBN13: 9780521772327
• ISBN10: 052177232X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

European pension systems are increasingly under pressure. In this book Giuliano Bonoli examines policymakers' efforts to cope, caught between public support for existing pension schemes and the expected inability to sustain current arrangements in the context of an aging population. This book compares and assesses the process of pension policy-making in the UK, France and Switzerland, examining the factors that influence pension reform. The book looks at new pension legislation, demographic change, and pension financing, and will be of interest to policymakers as well as students of the welfare state.

Table of Contents

List of tables	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
List of abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
Dimensions of the pension problem: institutions, economics and politics	7	(22)
The institutional level: an overview of pension systems	9	(5)
The economic debate: ageing, pension financing and pensioners' welfare	14	(9)
Options for reform	23	(4)
From the economics to the politics of pensions	27	(2)
Understanding the politics of pension reform: a theoretical Framework	29	(23)
The logic of social policy-making	30	(5)
Retrenchment in the area of pensions	35	(3)
Institutions and Policy-making	38	(5)
Veto points in democratic polities	43	(6)
Political institutions and policy-making strategies	49	(3)
Britain: pension reform through majority rule	52	(34)
The politics of majoritarian democracy in the UK	53	(5)
The British pension system	58	(7)
The Pension debate in the early 1980s	65	(2)
The 1986 Social Security Act	67	(11)
Key elements of the 1986 pension reform	78	(3)
Developments in the 1990s	81	(2)
Majoritarian Politics and pensions reform	83	(3)
Switzerland: the politics of consensual retrenchment	86	(32)
The politics of consensus democracy	87	(8)
The Swiss pension system	95	(6)
The 1995 pension reform (tenth AVS revision)	101	(11)
Key elements of the 1995 pension reform	112	(2)
Consensus democracy and the politics of welfare retrenchment	114	(4)
France: the search for an elusive consensus	118	(32)
Institutions and patterns of policy-making	118	(8)
The French pension system	126	(5)
The pension debate in the 1980sand early 1990s	131	(6)
The Balladur government and the 1993 pension reform	137	(4)
The reform of public sector pensions: the Juppe plan	141	(5)
Institutions and the politics of pension reform in France	146	(4)
Institutions, power concentration and pension reform	150	(24)
Policy-making strategies in pension reform	151	(4)
Developments in other countries	155	(4)
Political institutions and policy-making strategies	159	(5)
The impact of policy-making patterns on pension reform	164	(6)
Pension scheme design and opportunities for quid pro quos	170	(2)
Political Institutions and the future of retirement	172	(2)
References	174	(11)
Index	185