Social rights, social justice and pension outcomes in four multi-pillar systems

Abstract

Egalitarian liberal justice requires redistributive income transfers to protect the basic liberties of all citizens, yet it has been asserted that privatisation is fundamentally inegalitarian, and therefore likely to impair the autonomy of the least advantaged. This article assesses the redistributive potential of public and private pension arrangements by simulating the probable outcomes for individuals across a range of circumstances under the multi-pillar retirement systems of Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The findings show that the public pensions model may compare unfavourably with systems that rely substantially on privately administered provision when both are appraised in terms of distributive justice. In just systems, what counts is the role and scope of the public authority in framing and securing compliance with egalitarian aims and objectives, not the locus of retirement scheme administration.