Abstract

Universalism has become a lead idea of global social politics, and of global social security in particular, first voiced in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and renewed in recent calls for “Social Security for All” and “Universal Health Coverage,” and in the Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals launched by the World Bank and the International Labour Organization in 2016. This article analyses the idea of a universal right to social protection, as recently articulated by international organizations. According to J. W. Meyer’s neo-institutionalist theory of world society (Krücken & Drori, 2009; Meyer, 2007), universalism is a world-cultural norm, and international organizations are proponents of world culture. This article is based on the assumption that the meaning of universalism is not fixed, but that international organizations construct the norm in changing ways to secure worldwide acceptance and applicability, considering that states have very diverse socio-economic conditions and socio-cultural backgrounds. Accordingly, the article analyses how international organizations construct the cultural idea of universalism as well as institutional models of universal social protection. The finding is that the recent calls for universalism represent a new interpretation of universalism that refers to individual entitlements to benefits rather than collective development, and that this global consensus was reached by constructing the norm in a way to leave room for interpretation and adaptation. However, the price of consensus is the attenuation of the norm, by allowing particularistic interpretations and by weakening the content of the right to social protection. The article also seeks to explain the rise of the new global consensus and identify its limitations.

Highlights

  • The Global Call for a Universal Right to Social ProtectionUniversalism is a guiding idea of modernity (Parsons & Shils, 2001) or even of world culture (Krücken & Drori, 2009), first laid down in international law in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (UDHR; UN, 1948), which includes social rights, and confirmed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR; UN, 1966)

  • The article is based on an exploratory qualitative content analysis of the calls for universal social protection and on results from the FLOOR project, which draws on the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD; von Gliszczynski, 2015), applied to documents of international organizations, and on a legal analysis of human rights documents (Davy, 2014, 2015)

  • The article pursues three research questions regarding the calls: First, how do international organizations construct the general cultural idea of universalism in social protection to enable worldwide acceptance, considering that the countries in the world have very diverse socio-cultural backgrounds? In other words: How do global actors navigate between the claims of universalism and particularism? Second, how do international organizations translate the general idea of universalism into specific institutional models in view of enabling worldwide applicability, considering the diversity of socio-economic conditions and of national welfare traditions? States have different cultures of welfare, rooted in distinct traditions of family, of statehood, and of perceptions of social problems, which are shaped by religious and moral traditions

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Summary

Introduction

Universalism is a guiding idea of modernity (Parsons & Shils, 2001) or even of world culture (Krücken & Drori, 2009), first laid down in international law in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (UDHR; UN, 1948), which includes social rights, and confirmed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR; UN, 1966). All major international organizations subscribe to the idea of universalism, but some nationalist, authoritarian, and theocratic regimes have been questioning the idea, as do some intellectuals in democratic societies who view universalism as a late colonial or patriarchal Western ideology. Social security is both a lead idea (Kaufmann, 2012, Chapter 5) and the largest field of social policy.

Data and Methods
Theoretical Framework
From Developmental Universalism to Entitlement Universalism
Constructing Institutional Models of Social Protection
Constructing the Cultural Idea of Universalism in Social Protection
Phrasing the Idea of Universalism in Abstract Terms
Offering Choice and Adaptation of Global Models
Weakening the Content of the Right to Social Security
Pitfalls
A New Global Consensus and Its Limitations
Full Text
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