The rise of old age insurance in a peripheral economy, Spain 1908-1966

Abstract

This thesis aims at understanding the origins, evolution and economic meaning of public pensions, by looking at the particular case of Spain during the first two thirds of the twentieth century. The only way of adequately framing the particularities of this national case is to place the Spanish experience in the wider context of social protection systems in other countries. At the same time, this is the most suitable strategy in order to engage the dominant debate among specialised scholars of Southern Europe welfare states and particularly so in Spain. This debate concerns the poor Spanish performance in the area of social protection, a phenomenon which is commonly attributed to two facts. Firstly, it stems from the country’s position as a peripheral economy, at least since the advent of modern economic growth. Secondly, and more decisively, the welfare gap is believed to be related to Franco’s dictatorship and the big slump that it represented for state engagement with welfare issues. Therefore, even if the country has experienced significant improvements in this sector during the last quarter of the twentieth century in terms of welfare state standards, the roots of the still existent gap in welfare provision have concentrated significant research efforts on Spanish social policy