Social Security Economics

Author: (French) Catherine Carterin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-11-01
Features: This book is a seminal work in the field of social security economics in France, authored by C. Mille, a senior lecturer at the University of Paris in 1994. It centers on the major economic and social policy debates that have taken place in France and Europe since the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on economic crises, population crises, and adjustments to social security systems. The book systematically analyzes the significant role of social security systems in the transformation of capitalist economic structures, particularly in navigating past economic crises. It examines the structural crises and reforms of social security systems in France, the European Economic Community, as well as in OECD countries like the United States and Japan, exploring new models for overcoming economic and population crises, as well as the functional crises of social security systems themselves. The book also looks ahead to innovations in France's social security system in the 21st century.
The author views social security systems as an auxiliary part of the cyclical adjustment of the entire economic system. By analyzing the emergence, development, crises, and transformations of social security systems within the fluctuations of the capitalist economic cycle, the author opens up new areas of theoretical research in social security economics. From the perspectives of regulation and crisis, the author offers a unique analysis of social security systems. Social security systems represent a major advancement in the evolution of social policies in capitalist societies. They participate in the reproduction process, fulfilling the regulatory mission of the economic system during the transition from free capitalism to state-monopoly capitalism. They provide the necessary social risks, imbalances, and needs to overcome crises, compensate for the social costs of economic growth, improve the conditions for the reproduction of labor (a decisive factor in the development of structural crises), enhance labor productivity, drive economic growth and social progress, and played a decisive role in post-war economic leaps. However, since the 1960s and 1970s, they have experienced profound crises.
Essentially, this crisis stems from the structural crisis of state-monopoly capitalism. Economic crises have led to increased social expenditures and income contraction, suffocating social security systems and marking a turning point from development to crisis. Yet, the system has not remained static; it has evolved under the influence of shifting power dynamics. Economic crises have created new inequalities and generated greater social needs, and the inability to meet these demands has constrained economic growth. Today, it is essential to sever the link between the crises of the economic system and those of the social security system, establishing a new system of security and social progress. Beyond remedial measures, new social expenditures in areas such as prevention and education are needed. By leveraging the vitality of human resources, the social benefits of material and financial capital can be saved and increased, opening a path to progress amid structural crises.
To achieve the advancement and efficiency of social security systems, new structures must be established, along with loose, coordinated, and autonomous interventions, freeing themselves from excessive nationalism, centralization, and bureaucracy. The management of social security funds and other social funds should be closer to their beneficiaries, more directly involving economic and social forces rather than becoming the exclusive domain of a few experts.