Social Security in Transition - Some Reflections From a Fiscal Sociology Perspective

Abstract

The article tries to break down the general view of a crisis of social security by using a model in which the pressure of transforming the matured social security systems is the dependent variable and in which the independent variables involve both a number of exogenous factors placing environmental strain on these systems and a series of endogenous factors which, in the process of the maturing of social security systems, have turned up as non-intended consequences. In Germany, such a constellation has recently prompted four basic models for reforming social security: Privatisation, Machine Tax, Guaranteed Income, Solidary Action. It is argued that all of these, even though their proponents claim that they provide general models of reform, cover only some of the problem-generating factors.