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Reforming State Pension Provision in ‘Liberal’ Anglo-Saxon Countries: Re-Commodification, Cost-Containment or Recalibration?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

David Lain ,
Sarah Vickerstaff  and
Wendy Loretto
David Lain
Affiliation:
Brighton Business School, University of Brighton E-mail: D.Lain@brighton.ac.uk
Sarah Vickerstaff
Affiliation:
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent E-mail: S.A.Vickerstaff@kent.ac.uk
Wendy Loretto
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh Business School, University of Edinburgh E-mail: Wendy.Loretto@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

There are good theoretical reasons for expecting pension reform in Anglo-Saxon countries to follow similar paths. Esping-Andersen (1990) famously identified these countries as belonging to the same ‘Liberal’ model of welfare, under which benefits, including pensions, are said to be residual and weakly ‘de-commodifying’, reducing individuals’ reliance on the market to a much lesser degree than elsewhere. Pierson (2001) has furthermore argued that because of path dependency welfare states are likely to follow established paths when dealing with ‘permanent austerity’. Following this logic, Aysan and Beaujot (2009) argue that pension reform in liberal countries has resulted in increasing re-commodification. In this paper, we review pension reforms in the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand in the 2000s. We argue that because, in reality, the pension systems differed significantly at the point of reform, the paths followed varied considerably in terms of whether they focused on ‘re-commodification’, ‘cost-containment’ or ‘recalibration’.

Keywords

Pension ReformPensions Acts 2007 and 2008Liberalpath dependencyre-commodificationretrenchment
Type
Themed Section on Rethinking Retirement Incomes: Inequality and Policy Change in the UK and Anglo Saxon Countries
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 77 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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