Individual and collective responsibility: mandated private pensions in a comparative perspective

Abstract

For a growing number of social policy analysts, the privatisation of pensions should be understood as an integral element of welfare retrenchment. Driven by the core values of “neo-liberalism”, it is intended to diminish collective responsibility for retirement income futures. We take issue with this characterisation of pensions privatisation. A cross-national comparative analysis of mandated private pensions suggests that the market orientation of their design is generally ambivalent. While the architects of these arrangements have embraced market principles, they have also accepted the principle of collective responsibility. The privatisation of pensions has not been informed, universally or comprehensively, by the core values of neo-liberalism.