The Politics of Parliamentary Pensions in Western Democracies: Understanding Mps' Self-Imposed Cutbacks

ISBN-13: 9783631662786 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 294 str.

Anna Caroline Warfelmann

Opis

The author takes a close look at the politics of parliamentary pensions in Australia, Austria, Canada, and Germany and enlightens the reasons of self-imposed cuts by Members of Parliament. Members of Parliament in western democracies have been under growing pressure since they legislated first retrenchments of national social security systems. They are in a special situation because they have to decide about their own financial situation as well. Thus, it is surprising that they cut their own pension benefits in recent years. The book shows that the self-imposed cuts by Members of Parliament were related to public pension reforms but, in general, were less substantial.

Spis treści

Contents: Reforming Parliamentary Pensions - Evidence from Germany: Gradual Decline - Evidence from Austria: MPs Becoming Equal - Evidence from Australia: Aligning MPs and Government Employees - Evidence from Canada: "Notional Cutbacks".

O autorze

Anna Caroline Warfelmann studied Political Science and Social Policy at the University of Bremen before she completed her PhD at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences. She is specialising in the field of welfare state research. Her focus is on reforms of old-age pension schemes.