全球政治经济视角下的社会保障:历史经验与发展趋势

Global Social Security in Political and Economic Contexts:Historical Experiences and Current Trends

回顾人类历史,不难发现一些具备社会保障要素的制度,这表明社会保障不仅是人类的内在核心需求之一,而且也符合普遍意义上的理性人假设。本文考察了欧洲文艺复兴以来英国、德国和罗马教廷的社会保障立法进程与思想演变,以及德国的社会保障立法在两次世界大战期间对欧洲大陆、英国和美国社会保障制度建设的影响。二战结束后,福利国家的发展可划分为三个阶段,苏联解体后全球资本主义越发不稳定,社会保障私有化实验也面临反思和改革。在回顾影响社会保障的若干传统后,本文考察了学术界如何从经济学视角看待社会保障,并以俾斯麦模式和贝弗里奇模式为例,阐述了社会保障与经济发展的相互影响。

The essay begins with taking note of traces of social security practice that can already be found in ancient human history, arguing that social security seems to be a deeply rooted human want, including of the ubiquitous modern homo oeconomicus. It then explores the early forerunners, since Europe's Renaissance, of modern social security policy and thought, with the focus on the UK, Germany and respective writings of the Holy See. Germany's comprehensive social insurance legislation of the 1880 s turned out to be influential on Continental Europe and triggered intense mutual exchange about best solutions between scholars and politicians of Germany, France, the UK and the US before and after World War I. The unprecedented development of the welfare state after World War II was inspired by consolidated social security visions as developed, mainly, in the UK in the 1940 s. Latest with the fall of the Soviet System the welfare state concept has entered a phase of deep crisis and lost legitimacy. Global capitalism has become more volatile, with public social security on the retreat and privatized social security experiments missing their social targets and facing reconsideration and re-reforming. In this situation, social security, as materialized in various traditions, is hampered to unfold its potentially productivity enhancing impacts as well as its socially and economically stabilizing functions. As it turns out the chosen core structure of social security solutions(their 'design') is paramount for the social as well as the economic effects to be expected. This is illustrated by using the examples of 'Bismarckian' versus 'Beveridgean' systems, where, in a nutshell, 'pure Bismarck' turns out to be strictly labour productivity oriented whereas 'pure Beveridge' focuses on societal equity.