How partisan politics influence government policies in response to ageing populations

Since old-age programmes mitigate life-course risks that are relevant to individuals across socio-economic groups in ageing societies, all parties have a political incentive to support these initiatives. Nevertheless, pre-existing partisan commitments bind the policy instruments that parties use. Cabinet-level analyses of OECD economies demonstrate that left incumbency relies more on public expenditure than right-wing governments. What is more important is that, in the context of large elderly populations, pension coverage is greater under right-leaning governments, while pension replacement rates are higher in left-leaning governments. This shows that party behaviour related to life course-related policies cannot be explained by the conventional pro-expansion versus the pro-retrenchment partisan politics. Rather, a focus on partisan variation in the use of policy instruments is required.

Structural-Functional Analysis of a Pension as an Object of Pension Legal Relations

The pension system of the Russian Federation has undergone three fundamental reforms. In 1992, the first law on pensions began to operate in Russia, which significantly differed from the Union legislation. In 2002, insurance principles were introduced into the pension system, which led to a change in the entire system of pension coverage for persons working under an employment contract, including new types of pension coverage. In 2015, there was a significant reform of the existing insurance pension system, which in its significance is no less significant than all the previous changes in the pension legislation. Each pension reform changed the procedure for calculating pensions, legislatively establishing a new pension formula for determining the amount of a pension. Along with this, the structural elements of pensions also changed. At the same time, it is possible to identify similar features in the structural elements of pensions assigned in different periods, but at the functional level. The totality of similar functions of pension elements allows us to talk about certain patterns in the development of the pension provision of the Russian Federation. So, despite the change in the nature of pensions from state to insurance, the essence of pensions, in general, remained the same. Moreover, the essence and functions of the elements of state and insurance pensions are largely the same. The pension is a social security payment with a complex structure. The presence of a structure, the presence of elements and connections between them, indicates a complex function performed by a pension. This function cannot be reduced to a compensatory function, a function of assistance or a function of substitution of earnings. There is an element in the pension structure that reflects past employment. In pensions of different nature, this happens in different ways: wages are taken into account (in state pensions) or insurance contributions (in compulsory pension insurance pensions). In addition, the pension should include an element that increases the amount of the pension in the presence of special circumstances of a subjective nature: disabled dependents, the need for constant outside care. In pensions for state pension provision, such an element is supplements to pensions; in compulsory pension insurance, this function is performed by a fixed payment. Social pensions and funded pension are one-component payments, which raises questions not only about the nature of these pensions, but also about their essence.

From Benefits and Beneficiaries: The Historical Origins of Old-Age Pensions From a Political Regime Perspective

Global studies on the historical origins of old-age pensions from a political regime perspective are quite rare. Based on the novel PENLEG dataset this article shows that democratic and nondemocratic regimes had different policy priorities when designing old-age pensions for the first time. Whereas democracies had significantly higher legal pension coverage rates than nondemocratic regimes, the reverse pattern can be found for pension replacement rates. The study also shows that temporal effects and colonial legacy mattered. Longstanding democracies introduced much higher legal pension coverage rates than countries that had recently democratized. Additionally, the French colonial legacy spurred high legal pension coverage rates in African autocracies. These findings underline the importance of taking the multidimensionality of welfare programs into account when analyzing political regime differences. Moreover, due attention must be paid to the historical context when theorizing about welfare policies from a political regime perspective.

Growth, employment, and social protection in BRICS

This chapter sets out to search for evidence of three possible growth and social development paths pursued by BRICS. It finds one group of countries, say G1, to be good at growth, with another group of countries, G2, not so much. China and India stand out as a group labelled G1 high flyers. Brazil, Russia, and South Africa rank as a group of G2 low flyers. It remains a puzzle that the G1 good growth countries are not all good at social development, and many of the weak growth G2 countries turn out to be much better. Key indicators that are reviewed to understand the paths are the macro-prudential environment, employment and social protection, poverty and vulnerability, human capital, pension coverage, and poverty reduction to understand the challenges for ensuring both growth and social development.