Dispossession and Party Formation in Broader Comparative Perspective

This chapter shows that rather than emerging from a ready-formed cohesive industrial labor movement, these parties’ original constituency was the demoted artisan and peasantry in transition to be, but not yet, proletarianized. Second, in a related way, the chapter shows that the period of party emergence followed a process of economic and political dispossession: these parties articulated new political subjectivities in the context of eroding traditional economic and political structures. The differences in the timing of party emergence between the countries lie precisely in how these processes of dispossession developed: in Germany, the process of economic dispossession coincided with a political dispossession setting the terrain for the mass-party form, while in the British case, economic dispossession was not initially accompanied by political dispossession of the working classes, who maintained a degree of self-presentational authority, particularly in the form of “friendly societies.”

Gendered Labor Market (dis)advantages in Nordic Welfare States. Introduction to the Theme of the Special Issue

Gender equality has been named as one of the normative foundations of Nordic wel- fare states. This is reflected in how, year after year, Nordic states rank among the most gender egalitarian countries in the world (see, e.g., World Economic Forum 2020). In Nordic countries, the state has been, and continues to be, a central actor in shaping women’s citizenship, labor market opportunities, and caring roles. Especially publicly funded welfare services and policies that facilitate the reconciliation of work and care have played a major part in advancing women’s labor market participation (see, e.g., Bergquist et al. 1999; Borchorst & Siim 2002; Ellingsæter & Leira 2006; Siim & Stoltz 2015). The institutional framework of Nordic welfare state policies has been central to what has been called the ‘social democratic public service route’ (Walby 2004).One of the important building blocks of gender equality has been the aim of making policies in Nordic countries ‘women-friendly’. More than 30 years ago, Helga Hernes (1987) identified the Nordic countries as ‘potentially women-friendly societies’. She characterized women-friendly societies as those that ‘would not force harder choices on women than on men’ (ibid., 15), particularly in relation to work and care. Hernes also envisaged that woman-friendliness should be achieved without increasing other forms of inequality, such as class or ethnicity-based inequalities among different groups of women.However, achieving gender equality in working life and the sort of women- friendliness that Hernes envisaged at the societal level has in many ways also proved to be challenging, as the ties between the state and gender equality goals are more complex than what they might seem at first glance. Gender disparities have proven persistent also within the Nordic context. When we issued a call for this special issue, we were interested in various forms of gendered labor market (dis)advantage in Nordic countries. Furthermore, we asked how gender segregation, welfare state policies, labor marketpolicies, and various labor market actors interact to produce, maintain, challenge, or change gender equality in the labor market in the Nordic countries and beyond. The five articles presented in this special issue address the issue of gendered labor market (dis)advantages in Nordic countries from several vantage points, focusing on both on ‘traditional’ questions, such as corporate power and sustainable employment, and ‘emerging’ questions such as intersectionality, gender culture, and aesthetic work.

Formation of legislation on pension insurance in France, Great Britain, and Russia. A retrospective

The relevance of the study is due to the crisis of modern pension insurance systems and the need to change the paradigm of pension legislation development. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the formation of legislation on pension insurance in several countries (France, Great Britain, and Russia) at the initial stage of development (before 1914). The novelty is expressed both in the formulation of the problem and in the research methodology (the choice of countries and the period of research, the justification for the use of methods: dialectics, analysis, synthesis, system-structural, sociological, statistical, historical-legal, comparative-legal, formal-legal). The result of the study was the conclusions about the historical conditionality of the peculiarities of the formation of legislation on pension insurance in a particular country. There was early legalization of both voluntary and compulsory pension insurance in France. There was no legislation on pension insurance in the UK during the period under review, despite the early development of relevant institutions in the framework of workshops, guilds, and later in the framework of trade unions and “friendly societies”. In Russia, due to the agrarian nature of the economy, pension insurance did not develop within the framework of workshops and guilds; there were no laws on insurance in case of old age by 1914, while the risks of disability and loss of the breadwinner were regulated by law.

Sharing the Risk

Insurance makes use of the law of large numbers to mitigate the effects of risks on individuals by allowing them to be shared collectively. Early insurance arrangements arose as friendly societies and mutual insurance companies. Marine insurance has a long history and remains a major insurance market. Fire insurance provides compensation in the face of a capricious and frightening risk, but also invites fraudulent claims. Increasing amounts of information provide challenges for insurance underwriting: can there be too much information? The principle of insurance is that of averaging out of independent risks, but when risks are not independent, as may be the case when it comes to climate change, is there still any role for insurance?

Differences between Members and Shareholders of a Friendly Society and the Payment of Dividends: A South African–Australian Perspective

This article focusses on a very specific problem statement, namely how shareholder society relationships are viewed in Australia and South Africa. Friendly societies are special "legal creatures" enjoying legal personality from the date and time of their registration (not as companies). In South Africa friendly societies have been in existence for more than 160 years, with the latest legislation being promulgated in 1956. As an unregistered company, the friendly society forms part of the South African business enterprise landscape and has both members and shareholders. The legal relationships between members and shareholders and the payment of a dividend are unclear in the Friendly Society Act, 1956, and are generally regulated by the constitution or memorandum of incorporation of the friendly society. In Australia friendly societies developed approximately 200 years ago. In 1999 friendly society legislation was repealed by the Financial Sector Reform Act, 1999, in terms of which friendly societies had to convert to companies either as companies limited by guarantee or public companies as regulated by the Corporations Act, 2001. Prior to 1999, friendly societies were largely regulated by the Queensland Friendly Society Act, 1997 as unregistered companies. The Code regulated the relationships between members and shareholders and the payment of dividends. In this article we also focus on Australian friendly societies after 1999 and how they compare with South African friendly societies with regard to the member/shareholder relationships and the payment of dividends.

2 Presentation of a Winding-up Petition

The chapter discusses the Court orders which have the effect of winding up companies’ but under the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986). An application for an order that a company be wound up by the court under IA 1986 must be made by petition and can refer to only one company. The petition must contain all necessary allegations in a form which is sufficient to enable the court to make the requisite findings and consider the appropriate order. For all the various types of entity which may be wound up by the court under IA 1986, the relevant legislation specifies the circumstances in which that type of entity may be wound up. These are usually called the ‘grounds’ for winding up. For certain types of company, other persons also have standing to petition for winding up. There are separate rules for building societies, incorporated friendly societies and insolvent partnerships.