Busines history and political economy of occupational pensions in Germany, 1948-1982
Final Report Abstract
The project evaluates: (1) occupational pensions on the basis of six legislative processes and (2) occupational pensions on the basis of eight company case studies in the years 1948 to 1982. Subproject 1 contributes to research on the influence of organized interests on political decisions in the legislative process. It has been shown that, in addition to representatives of large companies, industry and trade unions, scientists and journalists also had an influence on political decisions. Another important contribution lies in the recognition that, contrary to the assumption of many political science studies, it was precisely those academics and journalists, and not the interest groups, who demanded the preservation of the status quo and evidence-based reforms. Political decision-makers have used the consultative power of the advocacy coalitions primarily to justify their own positions. In addition, coalitions of lawyers rarely succeeded in convincing veto players of their position in the short term. Rather, it turns out that certain constellations within the lawyers' coalitions were formed by common goals or ideological points of contact over a longer period of time and were difficult to separate. In addition, it has been shown that scientific studies and expert opinions played a decisive role in the ministerial bureaucracy and the work of the various parliamentary bodies. However, the political actors usually used the studies to consolidate rather than expand their own positions. This could be observed in all case studies. In the company case studies, it was possible to document that the design of occupational pension systems basically followed the normative ideas, but that there was a significant individual design depending on the respective company-specific context. In the case study companies, it was possible to demonstrate internal negotiation situations concerning company pension schemes and the actors involved in them. Significant changes in occupational pension schemes have resulted from both external and internal factors. These factors included, among other things, the adaptation to the changed labor or tax law or the dissolution of internal structuring decisions in order to establish social justice within a group of employees in accordance with the binding principle of equal treatment, to save costs or to achieve other financial effects. In all case study companies, negotiation processes between the employer and the employee side as well as the employer's decision-making processes could be identified.
Publications
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Die Statistik der Betriebsrente. Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, 64(1), 213-262.
Mävers, Dorothee & Pieper, Jonas
