Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The emergence of a pension fund champion: Switzerland in the worlds of welfare
- 1 The dress rehearsal for pension politics (1890–1914)
- 2 Laying the foundations of a divided pension system (1914–1938)
- 3 No monster like the Beveridge Plan. The wartime breakthrough of social insurance (1938–1948)
- 4 The three-pillar doctrine and the containment of social insurance (1948–1972)
- Epilogue. Aging in the shadow of the three pillars (1972–2006)
- Conclusion
- Appendix. A statistical overview of the second pillar
- Sources and references
- Index
Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The emergence of a pension fund champion: Switzerland in the worlds of welfare
- 1 The dress rehearsal for pension politics (1890–1914)
- 2 Laying the foundations of a divided pension system (1914–1938)
- 3 No monster like the Beveridge Plan. The wartime breakthrough of social insurance (1938–1948)
- 4 The three-pillar doctrine and the containment of social insurance (1948–1972)
- Epilogue. Aging in the shadow of the three pillars (1972–2006)
- Conclusion
- Appendix. A statistical overview of the second pillar
- Sources and references
- Index
Summary
I started this book by calling the reader's attention to how The Economist designated the shift from the first pillar of “crumbling” social insurance toward the third one of personal responsibility and individual, funded retirement accounts as a highly desirable course for pension reform. I also emphasized how a Swiss Re analyst boasted that the foundations of the Swiss pension system had been “properly laid”, in contrast to other European “rotten social insurance systems” allegedly facing catastrophic times because of their over-reliance on pay-as-you-go programs. These metaphors underscore the importance of the semantics attached to social policy development and in particular the effectiveness of the three-pillar doctrine. If the invention of this concept cannot be attributed with certainty to any one person, its success is undeniable. What first started as the motto of the 1960s insurer-led campaign to safeguard funded occupational provision and respond to the challenge of the people's pensions has left a lasting imprint on the popular imagination and on discourses about the Swiss welfare state. It has also been picked up beyond the borders of Switzerland. The adoption of the three-pillar metaphor by free-market commentators, policy experts, and multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank during the last decade of the twentieth century underscores the prominence of this concept in the current ideological and political offensive in favor of the financialization of pensions.
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- Information
- Solidarity without the State?Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State, 1890–2000, pp. 280 - 288Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008