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Rethinking the paradox of redistribution: how private insurance and means testing can lead to universalizing reform. LEQS Discussion Paper No. 114/2016 July 2016

Gelepithis, Margarita (2016) Rethinking the paradox of redistribution: how private insurance and means testing can lead to universalizing reform. LEQS Discussion Paper No. 114/2016 July 2016. [Discussion Paper]

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    Abstract

    Market-heavy welfare systems, in which low or moderate state benefits are topped up by private welfare arrangements, are expected to undermine political support for the extension of social rights and perpetuate benefit fragmentation over time. And where low state benefits are means-tested, political support is expected to be particularly prone to erosion. In this paper I develop the argument that the combination of private pension insurance and means-testing does not always perpetuate fragmentation. Rather, it structures the policy preferences of pension industry representatives and right-of-centre parties such that these actors push for reforms to make the state pension more universal. I make my argument by examining the reform history of nine market-heavy pension systems in the three decades since 1980. A fuzzyset Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) maps the conditions under which universalizing reforms have occurred, and two case studies link institutional conditions to reform outcomes via the policy preferences of key political actors.

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    Item Type: Discussion Paper
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Universalism, dualization, means-testing, private insurance, pension reform
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > social policy > welfare state
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > London School of Economics and Political Science (European Institute) > LEQS Discussion Papers
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 05 Aug 2018 14:13
    Number of Pages: 66
    Last Modified: 05 Aug 2018 14:13
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/93634

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