The global social insurance movement since the 1880s

This article analyses the patterns and dynamics of the global social insurance movement since the 1880s through the framework of ‘interactive diffusion’. It argues that two principal models of social insurance – the German capitalist and Soviet socialist – diffused around the world throughout the twentieth century. It contends that global forces conveyed basic ideas while national forces determined the timing and specifics of the adoption of global models. From the 1980s, however, a new global model of privatization emerged with the rise of neo-liberalism and support from the World Bank. Privatization partially replaced public pension systems in Latin America, then in the former socialist countries in Europe and in a few other countries. Nevertheless, national compulsory social insurance has remained the predominant form for social protection in the world.