Development and Future of Social Security Systems
40th Linz Conference of ITH (September 16—19, 2004)
organized by International Conference of Labour and Social
History
and Chamber of Labour of Upper Austria
Some preliminary theses for the 2004 conference
1. Social security systems in the so called "welfare
states" have been extended in times of economic growth. Their introduction,
however, had not been a result of prosperity, but of social crisis management
of reform-oriented parts of administration and bourgeoisie as well as the
reformist majority of the labour movement.
2. The present dispute over the future of social security systems (especially
the provision for illness and old age, but also the different benefits like
insurance against unemployment, maternity regulations and child allowances)
focusses on the "inability" to finance those benefits in view
of structural changes in economy and demography of industrialized societies.
Therefore, for some time, "reformatory" measurements in welfare
states have been aimed at the reduction of social benefits people are legally
entitled to social welfare for needy people. At the same time a growing
market for private insurance and savings pension schemes (often even sponsored
by public subsidies) is developping also in those social security systems
that have been organized by the state or by mutual insurance associations
according to the principle of solidarity.
3. The public dispute over those questions since the 1990ies has provoked
conflicts also within the unions and labour parties. From outside the labour
movement alternative models like the demand for a common unearned basic
income have been brought into discourse.
Aim of the conference is to introduce the historical component
in this debate and to compare different responses of trade unions and other
organizations and parties being in the tradition of the labour movement.
The main topic should be the "classical" welfare states. However,
the call for papers and commentaries should include also the politics of
labour organizations in countries without state-subsidized social security
systems, the remodelling of social security systems in previous communist
ruled countries, the social policy of communist governments and the role
of unions and similar associations in those countries. The analysis of social
democratic resp. communist policies should englobe also the self portrayal
of those movements as the vanguardes of social policy.
Contemporary political problems, including tensions within ruling social democratic parties, could be discussed, but in accompanying events of the conference (public panel discussion?) - the conference itself should first and foremost contribute to implement the historical experience into the discourse about the reform of social security systems.
ITH member institutes are invited to send proposals for a
personal enlargement of the international preparatory group to the Vienna
secretariat until the end of June. Deadline for proposals for the structure
and main focusses of the conference is August 31st, 2003.
The international preparatory group will meet in Linz
in September 2003 during the 39th Linz Conference, and lay down the structure
of the conference. On this basis a call for papers will be formulated, deadline
for the submission of papers will be November 30th, 2003. The preliminary
conference program shall be fixed until January 31st, 2004.
W. R. Garscha, head of the international preparatory group
winfried.garscha@doew.at
Contact
Christine Schindler, ITH, Wipplinger Str. 8, A-1010 Wien,
e-mail: christine.schindler@doew.at,
Tel. +43 1 534 36 90 329 (Schindler) or +43 1 534 36 90 315 (Garscha), Fax.
+43 1 534 36 99 90 319