Mutual Insurance 1550-2015 (eBook)

Marco H.D. van Leeuwen is a professor of social science history at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He specializes in the study of global social inequality from 1500 to the present. Professor van Leeuwen is an honorary research fellow at the International Institute of Social History. He has written widely on social inequality and mobility as well as on philanthropy, charity, mutual aid, private and social insurance, and the history of risks. His work has been published in such journals as the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, The Economic History Review, the Journal of Social History, Continuity and Change, and the European Sociological Review.

Preface 6
Contents 8
List of Figures 10
List of Tables 12
1: Mutual Insurance 15
1 Introduction 15
2 Questions 19
3 Structure 26
2: The Era of the Guilds: Mutual Insurance 1550–1800 30
1 Introduction 31
2 A Corporatist World 33
3 Micro-insurance at the Time of the Dissolution of the Guilds 41
4 Scope of Coverage 47
5 Benefit Levels and Conditions 49
6 Guilds as Micro-insurers 59
7 Governance and Sociability 72
8 Formalization into Mutual Insurance 77
9 Guilds in the Mixed Economy of Welfare 83
10 Conclusion 89
3: The Age of the Friendly Societies: Mutual Insurance in the Nineteenth Century 96
1 Introduction 97
2 Scope of Coverage 106
3 Burial Insurance 111
4 Old Age, Widows’, and Unemployment Insurance 127
5 Sickness: Compensation for Loss of Income 133
6 Sickness: Compensation for Costs of Medical Treatment 139
7 Governance and Sociability 149
8 International Comparison 155
9 Friendly Societies in the Mixed Economy of Welfare 162
10 Conclusion 174
4: The Rise and Decline of Modern Trade Union Insurance, 1900–65 179
1 Introduction 180
2 Scope of Coverage 186
3 Sickness and Unemployment Insurance 194
4 Mutual Insurance as an Incentive to Trade Union Membership 204
5 Trade Unions in the Mixed Economy of Welfare 212
6 International Comparison 221
7 Conclusion 225
5: New Initiatives, 1965–2015 230
1 Introduction 230
2 The Bread Fund 235
3 Micro-insurance in Developing Countries 241
4 New Initiatives in the Mixed Economy of Welfare 246
5 Conclusion 255
6: Principles and Practices of Mutual Insurance, 1550–2015 258
1 Introduction 258
2 Continuity or Discontinuity? 259
3 How Did Mutual Insurance Work? 265
4 Consequences of Mutualism 267
5 Why Did It Work? 274
6 What Position Did Micro-insurance Arrangements Assume in the Mixed Economy of Welfare? 278
7 Can It Still Work? 280
References 291
Index 314