Four Sides of the Coin: The Interplay of Interests in German and Polish Pension Industries

Abstract

Pension reforms tend toward privatization of fund management, capitalization of savings, and redistribution of risk. An overview of reforms in the opening section identifies the course of the institutional change in Germany and in Poland, which can be broadly associated with Western European and Eastern European types of pension design, respectively. The second section offers a methodical insight in interests of four parties of the game, that is, the government, financial sector, nonfinancial companies, and trade unions, as well as prospective pensioners or actual retirees. The major section provides a review of arguments in favor of pension funding, drawing from media debates, and official announcements, with the aim to identify the rationale for pension funding. Next, it considers how this logical position is related to specific material interests. JEL Classification: B52, P16, P52

Globalisation and the value of Ulrich Beck’s concept of ‘cosmopolitanisation’ in orienting a new sociology of later life

“…The ideal of a 'flatrate universalism' in old age security has been replaced by a much more diversified range of incomes and resources, reflecting the complexity of positions in working life. Post-work later life becomes less entwined with the state, yet more closely linked with the forces of globalised capital (Ząbkowicz, 2023). Whether this is to the overall benefit of later life -enriching it more than the earlier structured dependencyremains to be seen.…”