Towards a European Social Model? Trends in Social Insurance among EU countries 1980-2000. Submitted to European Societies

ABSTRACT: The market-enhancing regulations of the European Union (EU) place political and economic constraints on the Member States. This has been expected to induce convergence of social policies, generally in a downward direction. At the same time the notion of a European Social Model has been launched as a strategy to make marketization socially acceptable, pointing to a development in a different direction. This paper examines key aspects of the development of the main social insurance programs during the period 19802000 in 14 EU Member States. Are there significant signs of convergence in the replacement rates of social insurance programs and do broader development trends of the social insurance systems indicate converging institutional models? The results indicate divergence rather than convergence of social insurance replacement rates. In terms of institutional models there is no evidence of a common European Social Model in the area of social insurance over the past decades. Key words: social insurance; European Union; European social model; convergence Over the past decade and a half, nation states belonging to the European Union (EU) have gone through a swift economic and political integration process; a barely functioning economic community with planned but only partially achieved free movement of goods and services has developed into a full-fledged economic and monetary union with free movement of both capital and labour. For members of the EU, the diffuse pressures from ‘globalization ’ have thus partly been canalized into the market-enhancing regulations of the EU. This pursuit of the ‘Single European Market ’ ha