Solidarity without the State?: Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State, 1890–2000

by Matthieu Leimgruber

• ISBN13: 9780521875400
• ISBN10: 0521875404
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book presents the first comprehensive history of the interplay of public and private provision that made the Swiss 'three-pillar' pension system into a model for the World Bank and other pension reformers during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Through a study of business federations', private pension lobbyists' and insurance companies' archives, Matthieu Leimgruber charts the century-long battle waged over the boundaries of state and private pensions. He shows how a distinctive path towards social provision has led Switzerland apart from its Western European neighbours and has laid the foundation for a pension fund to rival that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Through this comparative approach Matthieu Leimgruber is also able to question current assumptions about the strict dichotomy between 'Anglo-Saxon' and 'continental' models of welfare provision. This study will appeal to scholars of twentieth-century European history, economic history, political economy and welfare economics.

Table of Contents

The emergence of a pension funds champion

Switzerland in the worlds of welfare

The dress rehearsal of pension politics (1890û1914)

Laying the foundations of a divided pension system (1914û1938)

No monster like the Beveridge Plan

The three-pillar doctrine and the containment of social insurance (1948û1972)

Epilogue

Aging in the shadow of the three pillars (1972û2006)

Conclusion

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