The French System of Direct and Indirect Family Transfers and the Principles of Justice

摘要

In Gosta Esping-Andersen's paradigmatic analysis of welfare capitalism (1990), the French welfare state is classified in the conservative corporatist regime. France is generally recognized as belonging to the Bismarckian family of welfare states because of the centrality of social insurance. In fact, most of benefits are earnings related and entitlement is conditional upon a contribution record. Social security contributions are paid by both employers and employees. However, in France, there is also a non-contributory element, a Beveridgean component. It refers to the tax-financed system and includes social assistance programs, minimum incomes and programs aimed at vocational training, and at integrating the young or long-term unemployed. These programs benefit those who do not have access to the social insurance system, such as the long-term unemployed or the young unemployed who have not contributed enough or have only a very short contribution period. Since the late 1970s, several kinds of minimum incomes or social minima have been set up to compensate for the failures of the Bismarckian sector (the social insurance system). There are at least eight different minimum incomes: minimum income for old people over sixty-five years, allowance for disabled adults, integration allowance, specific solidarity allowance, lone parent allowance, minimum income for disabled people (for those who have small invalidity insurance benefits), widowhood allowance, and minimum guaranteed income for adults over twenty-five years. These minimum incomes are granted with means tests. In the last three decades, the Beveridgean component has grown in a significant way. The economic crisis and the economic changes (more flexibility in the labor market and job insecurity) have brought about an increase in the number of people not covered by the social insurance system.