Beyond coverage: the politics of occupational pensions and the role of trade unions. Introduction to special issue

Abstract

As public pensions are being retrenched across Europe there is an ongoing shift towards occupational pensions. But the trend is not uniform, and this special issue demonstrates the huge variations in occupational pension systems. This introductory article introduces the politics of this shift. We first outline how occupational pensions deviate from textbook social policy. Industrial relations and the challenges trade unions face feature more strongly than in public social policies. Also, the schemes themselves may take the shape of individual savings schemes, as opposed to the more redistributive arrangements of public social policies. We suggest that theoretical approaches such as the literature on embedded markets (inspired by Polyani), and on the shifting nature of industrial relations as well as on ‘issue networks’ (inspired by Heclo) will be helpful. The article provides an overview of the state of knowledge, building on recent European comparative studies. We argue that it is time to move beyond comparisons of coverage rates and turn attention towards the many dimensions along which occupational pensions vary between countries and within countries.