Volume 3, Number 4 (Fall) 1968
Rimlinger, Gaston V. 1968. "Social Change and Social Security in Germany." Journal of Human Resources 3(4):409-421.
Social security systems reflect and affect the social and political environment in which they operate. The early German system, although influenced by paternalistic traditions, was above all politically motivated. Its organization and administration were shaped by the desire to placate the increasingly alienated industrial workers and strengthen the prevailing power structure. Today both the means and the end are different. The welfare of the individual rather than that of the state has become the prime objective. Under present conditions, this requires not merely projection against abject poverty--a level of protection which was thought adequate in the late nineteenth century--but the preservation of the standard of living a particular citizen achieved through a lifetime of work. To achieve this objective, Germany has found it necessary to link systematically the growth of social insurance benefits to the growth of national income.
The author is Professor of Economics at Rice University. An earlier version of this paper was read at the meeting of the American Sociological Association August 29, 1967, in San Francisco. I am indebted to Professors Reinhard Bendix and Louis Galambos for helpful comments. Research for this paper was funded in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency under ARPA Order No. 738 and monitored by the Office of Naval Research, Group Psychology Branch, under Contract No. N00014-67-A-0145-0001, NR 177-909. Responsibility for the content rests solely with the author.
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