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Global Pension Policies
Programs, frames and paradigms of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization
Schriften der Gesellschaft für Sozialen Fortschritt e. V., Vol. 27
(2009)
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Pension policies are traditionally and still today mainly legislated at the national level. This is due to the lack of a genuine global problem structure that would require transnational action in this field. Yet, in recent years the process of generating new pension policies has become global. Pension policies are increasingly under the influence of global actors, namely the World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Based on the assumption that international organizations are emergent, partly autonomous corporate actors, the models and ideas diffused by those organizations in the field of old-age pensions are analyzed. Both organizations diffuse ideas on how to conceive of the problem of old-age security and how to respond with adequate solutions.Since the mid 1990s the active diffusion of pension policies by the World Bank dominates pension reform efforts throughout the world. Its advice to build up multipillar schemes with a strong emphasis on private, funded and defined contribution elements had lasting impacts on national pension policies, especially in Latin America and Eastern Europe. In the face of this competition by the World Bank, the ILO, who traditionally advocated social insurance schemes, lost ground in the global pension debate.By decomposing ideas into paradigms, frames and programs an in-depth comparative knowledge of the pension policies promoted by World Bank and ILO is provided. One of the main findings is that the strong agenda-setting power of the World Bank is also a result of its homogenous paradigmatic foundation. Hence, ideas account for the power of the World Bank alongside conventional explanations that emphasize its ability to impose loan conditionalities. One example of the independent power of ideas is that following recent EU enlargement the World Bank type pension reforms formerly implemented in Eastern Europe could now become a benchmark within the EU. Thus, World Bank ideas would have found an indirect way to influence the pension policies of the EU-15.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preface | 7 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 9 | ||
| Table of contents | 11 | ||
| Tables and Charts | 14 | ||
| Abbreviations and Acronyms | 15 | ||
| Introduction | 19 | ||
| Economic and political globalization | 19 | ||
| Transnational problems and global social policies | 22 | ||
| The particularity of global pension policies: International organizations as “teachers of norms” | 26 | ||
| The rise of global pension policies | 28 | ||
| The theoretical framework of analysis: Bringing together ideas, interests and institutions | 29 | ||
| Structure of the study and main hypotheses | 30 | ||
| Data and methodology | 33 | ||
| I. Ideas, interests and the emergence of international organizations as corporate actors | 34 | ||
| 1. Reductionist theories of international organizations | 38 | ||
| a) Neorealism | 38 | ||
| aa) The anarchic international system | 38 | ||
| bb) Patterns of state-interaction | 41 | ||
| cc) Organizations as instruments | 42 | ||
| b) Rational choice institutionalism | 46 | ||
| aa) States as rational actors | 46 | ||
| bb) Absolute gains and the enforcement of cooperation | 47 | ||
| cc) Reductionism and autonomy | 51 | ||
| 2. Theorizing emergence of international organizations | 55 | ||
| a) Symbolic interactionism | 55 | ||
| b) Social constructivism | 56 | ||
| 3. Emergence, autonomy and power of international organizations | 60 | ||
| a) High-order corporate actors | 60 | ||
| b) Knowledge-generation, epistemic communities and the productive power of discourses | 68 | ||
| 4. Ideas, interests and international organizations: A conceptual framework | 74 | ||
| a) Ideas and interests: Shifting relationships | 74 | ||
| b) Interests shape ideas: Programs and frames | 80 | ||
| c) Ideas shape interests: Paradigms | 81 | ||
| 5. Chapter conclusion | 83 | ||
| II. World Bank and International Labour Organization – historical phases, institutional structures and activities | 85 | ||
| 1. The World Bank | 86 | ||
| a) From a financial institution to a knowledge agency | 90 | ||
| aa) Reconstruction and infrastructure projects (1944–1968) | 90 | ||
| bb) Poverty reduction and expansion (1968–1979) | 93 | ||
| cc) Structural adjustment (1979–1995) | 95 | ||
| dd) Towards a post-Washington consensus? (since 1995) | 101 | ||
| (1) Criticism of the Washington consensus | 101 | ||
| (2) CDF and PRSP – a new development approach? | 102 | ||
| (3) Criticism of the post-Washington consensus | 106 | ||
| b) Organizational structure | 108 | ||
| aa) The Board of Governors and the Executive Directors | 111 | ||
| bb) Special organizational units | 113 | ||
| (1) The Development Economics Vice Presidency: Gatekeepers of ideological mainstreaming | 113 | ||
| (2) The Human Development Network, the Sustainable Development Network and the role of the Social Protection Sector | 117 | ||
| c) Operational and ideational activities | 123 | ||
| aa) Lending and conditionality | 123 | ||
| bb) Knowledge-generation and agenda-setting | 129 | ||
| 2. The International Labour Organization | 132 | ||
| a) From a standard setting to a development agency | 133 | ||
| aa) International labor standards for workers (1919–1944) | 133 | ||
| bb) Human rights and development (1944–today) | 135 | ||
| (1) The Declaration of Philadelphia | 135 | ||
| (2) Poverty alleviation | 137 | ||
| b) Organizational structure | 141 | ||
| aa) The International Labour Conference | 142 | ||
| bb) The Governing Body | 143 | ||
| cc) The International Labour Office | 144 | ||
| (1) The organization’s think tank | 144 | ||
| (2) The Social Security Department | 147 | ||
| c) Operational and ideational activities | 151 | ||
| aa) Knowledge-generation and technical assistance | 151 | ||
| bb) Elaboration of norms | 154 | ||
| cc) The supervisory system | 157 | ||
| (1) Reporting on ratified and non-ratified Conventions | 157 | ||
| (2) Representations and complaints | 162 | ||
| (3) Excursus: Application of Article 33 of the Constitution: Myanmar | 164 | ||
| (4) Special procedure concerning the violation of the freedom of association | 168 | ||
| 3. Chapter conclusion | 171 | ||
| III. Ideational foundations of global pension policies | 174 | ||
| 1. Programs, frames and paradigms: A typology for the analysis of ideas | 175 | ||
| 2. Ideas within the World Bank | 181 | ||
| a) Programs | 181 | ||
| aa) The Swiss Chilanpore model | 181 | ||
| bb) The three pillar model (1994) | 185 | ||
| cc) The five pillar model (2005): More pillars – less radical? | 186 | ||
| b) Frames | 190 | ||
| aa) Individual autonomy | 190 | ||
| bb) Generational equity | 191 | ||
| cc) Demography and financial sustainability | 195 | ||
| dd) Work incentives | 197 | ||
| c) Paradigms | 197 | ||
| aa) Neoclassical labor market theory | 198 | ||
| bb) Neoclassical growth theory | 200 | ||
| cc) Life cycle hypothesis | 203 | ||
| dd) Public choice theory | 203 | ||
| 3. Ideas within the International Labour Organization | 205 | ||
| a) Programs | 205 | ||
| aa) The official programmatic | 205 | ||
| bb) Three generations of social security standards | 208 | ||
| (1) The first generation: 1919–1944 | 208 | ||
| (2) The second generation: 1944–1952 | 209 | ||
| (3) The third generation: Since 1952 | 213 | ||
| cc) The Social Security Department: Towards a development approach | 215 | ||
| b) Frames | 221 | ||
| aa) Social justice | 221 | ||
| bb) Demographic crisis? | 222 | ||
| cc) Globalization | 222 | ||
| dd) Investment | 223 | ||
| c) Paradigms | 224 | ||
| aa) Social values and social rights | 225 | ||
| bb) Tripartism and state responsibility | 226 | ||
| cc) Heterogeneity of economic paradigms | 227 | ||
| (1) Challenged by the mainstream | 228 | ||
| (2) The funding controversy | 230 | ||
| (3) The saving-investment-growth nexus | 233 | ||
| 4. Chapter conclusion | 235 | ||
| 5. Outlook: Pension policy transfer in Europe | 238 | ||
| a) Coercive and voluntary policy transfer | 239 | ||
| b) NDC systems and EU enlargement | 242 | ||
| c) Towards a pan-European NDC pension system? | 248 | ||
| aa) The NDC-pillar | 250 | ||
| bb) The funded pillar | 251 | ||
| cc) The social pension pillar and a minimum pension | 253 | ||
| Conclusion | 256 | ||
| References | 260 | ||
| Index | 294 |