The Privatization Of Social Security In Western Countries:a New Institutionalist Perspective

As an important public service, social security has undergone a various forms of significant reform and transformation, amongst which the privatization of social security. The dissertation aims at the privatization of social security in the fields of old-age insurance, healthcare and social rescue in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan from the late 1970s to the present.The dissertation intends to answer two questions: a) the derivation, development and change of social security privatization in western countries; the different approaches, means, measures and procedures of privatization in respective aspects of social security; b) what's the external and internal factors affecting social security privatization. In answering the first question, the dissertation displays a relatively clear prospect of the privatization of social security through comparative research on respective states, projects, approaches and means. While answers the second question, applying new institutionalist perspective, the dissertation discovers some key factors affecting social security privatization, especially focuses on the impact of institutional and behavioral variables apart from environmental factors on the privatization of social security.The dissertation concludes as follows: a) there are diversity of paths of derivation, development and change in the privatization of social security, there are various approaches, measures and means in different aspects of social security privatization; b) the internal factors (institutional and behavioral variables) are the most important factors in affecting the paths, approaches, measures, means and the extent of social security privatization.The innovation of the dissertation comprises three aspects: a) opens up a new field of research on public service by studying deeply to the privatization of social security; b) exploits a new methodology by applying new institutionalist approach to the researching on the privatization of social security, this methodological innovation consists of synthetizing New Public Management (NPM) theory, governance theory, civil society theory, welfare pluralism theory, and absorbing the latest findings of behaviorist politics, political economy, political sociology and public policy science; c) develops a new model of research on the formation and change of public policy by constructing an analysis model in explaining the privatization of social security, after revising the new politics of welfare state.