The idea that the traditional Welfare State has reached its limits and that it should be replaced by a new ‘Welfare Mix’ of private and public services is nowadays an almost universally accepted axiom. Welfare policies, under the serious external economic and social pressures from globalisation, exacerbated by the dominant neoclassical, are moving increasingly towards the goals of retrenchment and cost containment. Market principles, such as competitiveness and the maximisation of cost efficiency, are becoming more prominent across Europe contradicting those principles that have traditionally associated with social policy like equity, solidarity, social justice.
This multiple ideological, political and economical process involves a new balance between public and private components of social security. This paper, which aims to offer a critical appraisal of this trend, contains two parts. The first part briefly outlines a comparative overview of privatisation reforms of social insurance systems. The second part attempts a prescriptive analysis of the impact of these reforms, from the viewpoint of a commitment to human rights.
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