Solidarity without the State?
Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State, 1890–2000

A comprehensive, comparative study of the Swiss welfare system, based on extensive research in business archives.

Matthieu Leimgruber (Author)

9780521875400, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 March 2008

332 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.672 kg

'This book provides a masterly account of the shaping of the Swiss pension system during the twentieth century … there is no doubt that this book will be an important milestone in welfare state research. Hopefully, it will boost more encompassing empirical investigations bearing on all components of the complex nexus between the State, private companies, and associations.' Jean-Michel Bonvin, European History Quarterly

This book presents the first comprehensive history of the interplay of public and private provision that made the Swiss 'three-pillar' pension system into a model for the World Bank and other pension reformers during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Through a study of business federations', private pension lobbyists' and insurance companies' archives, Matthieu Leimgruber charts the century-long battle waged over the boundaries of state and private pensions. He shows how a distinctive path towards social provision has laid the foundation for a pension fund industry rivalling that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Through this comparative approach Matthieu Leimgruber is also able to question current assumptions about the strict dichotomy between 'Anglo-Saxon' and 'continental' models of welfare provision. This study will appeal to scholars of twentieth-century European history, economic history, political economy and welfare economics.

List of figures
List of tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The emergence of a pension funds champion. Switzerland in the worlds of welfare
1. The dress rehearsal of pension politics (1890–1914)
2. Laying the foundations of a divided pension system (1914–38)
3. No monster like the Beveridge Plan. The wartime breakthrough of social insurance (1938–48)
4. The three-pillar doctrine and the containment of social insurance (1948–72)
Epilogue. Aging in the shadow of the three pillars (1972–2006)
Conclusion
Appendix. A statistical overview of the second pillar
Sources and references
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]