摘要：German pension policy experienced a shift in the early 2000s, when
public pensions were cut back, the retirement age raised, and private,
publicly subsidized pension provision stipulated. Within a coherent
reform narrative, those reforms were grounded on arguments of
a ‘demographic time bomb’, a no-longer-affordable public pension
scheme, and the return potential of private pension funds. Yet this
narrative was delegitimized quickly with zero-rate-policy, and
increasing old-age poverty in a lean public pension scheme. In such
a situation, it can be expected difficult to either adapt the old
narrative or construct new ones. This makes an interesting case for
this article to study reform narratives and argumentative coupling in
recent German pension policy through two contrasting cases:
A failed attempt at establishing a minimum-pension scheme; and
a ‘successful’ reform package combining a ‘mothers’ pension’ and
exceptions for a full pension at age 63. Findings illuminate how the
contrasting success of those reform proposals can be understood in
terms of narrative stories: The reform which – political-strategically –
could build on the ‘deservingness’ of the target groups could be
agreed upon comparatively easily. Possible beneficiaries of
a minimum pension are of varying ‘deservingness’, though, and
narrating a more ‘problem-solving’ story has proven difficult.
