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ECONOMIC RESEARCH

TITLE:

Social Insurance: The History of the Issue in the Context of Basic Pension Income

Vyacheslav N. Bobkov, Grigory P. Degtyarev, Vadim I. Ryazantsev

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REV (Review article)

JEL I38, I32

https://doi.org/10.52180/1999-9836_2026_22_3_4_409_422

AUTHORS

Vyacheslav N. Bobkov

Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7364-5297

SPIN-code: 5639-0410

ResearcherID: U-6527-2019

Scopus ID: 55960509800

Grigory P. Degtyarev

Independent expert-researcher, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5443-6588

SPIN-code: 2756-3590

Vadim I. Ryazantsev

Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6249-0242

SPIN-code: 5026-3614

FOR CITATION

Bobkov V.N., Degtyarev G.P., Ryazantsev V.I. Social Insurance: The History of the Issue in the Context of Basic Pension Income. Uroven' Zhizni Naseleniya Regionov Rossii=Living Standards of the Population in the Regions of Russia. 2026;22(3):409–422. https://doi.org/10.52180/1999-9836_2026_22_3_4_409_422 (In Russ.)

ABSTRACT

The article examines the genesis of the social insurance doctrine developed by A. Wagner, a representative of the German school of state socialism, which became the conceptual foundation of O. von Bismarck’s «social reforms from above». The aim is to trace the evolution of views on social insurance from classical liberalism to state socialism and to demonstrate the continuity of this doctrine in relation to contemporary debates on pension basic income. The methodology relies on historical-comparative analysis, content analysis of primary sources (A. Wagner «Die Sociale Frage», 1906; I.I. Chistyakov «Insurance of Workers in Russia», 1912; L.S. Tal «The Labour Contract», 1913) and a systemic approach. The empirical base includes both historical primary sources of the late 19th – early 20th centuries and current Russian and foreign studies of 2020–2026 on basic income, universal pensions and pension reforms. The paper shows that the integrated system of social reform proposed by A. Wagner (higher wages, compulsory insurance against sickness, disability and old age, factory legislation, tax reform) established the principles of solidarity and state responsibility, later developed in pre-revolutionary Russian thought and in the modern concept of pension basic income. The study concludes that pension basic income should be seen as an institutional continuation of the Wagnerian model of social insurance, which is of practical relevance for the transformation of the Russian pension system.

KEYWORDS

social insurance, german state socialism, A. Wagner, O. Bismarck, I.I. Chistyakov, L.S. Tal, history of social policy, basic pension income, basic pension, social protection, freedom of choice

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The reported study was funded by Russian Science Foundation grant 25-18-00228 at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Vyacheslav N. Bobkov

Doctor of Economics, Professor, Honoured Science Worker of the Russian Federation, Head of Scientific Project, Laboratory for Research on the Basic Pension Income, Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Grigory P. Degtyarev

Doctor of Economics, Independent expert-researcher.

Vadim I. Ryazantsev

Intern Researcher, Laboratory for Research on the Basic Pension Income, Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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