Toward a Neoliberal Europe? Pension Reforms and Transformed Citizenship

The authors argue that starting from a welfare state, based on specific assumptions regarding generations, gender, and labor markets, two extreme directions of possible development-toward privatization and toward solidarity-are currently being taken. European welfare reforms transfer many services, needs, and responsibilities to the market, examples of a neoliberal tendency. However, there is also a contrasting and striking development toward solidarity, based on extensive regulatory policies, examples of a neoetatistic tendency. Focusing on pension reforms, the authors analyze this twofold development which the authors observe in reform measures and discourses; it redefines social rights, and therefore transforms social identity and citizenship.