At the core of the modern welfare state is the institution of social insurance, which provides event-conditioned benefits through a publicly orchestrated system of contributions and distribution. At the core of the modern welfare state is the institution of social insurance, which provides event-conditioned benefits through a publicly orchestrated system of contributions and distribution. Tracing an intellectual history of the practice from the time of the French Revolution through the present, this talk offers an account of how and why social insurance became one of the central policy tools of wealthy democracies. This history reveals that the way in which risk is conceived and calculated has important consequences for the design of social policy. It also shows that the capacity of social insurance to accommodate a plurality of normative principles and aims helps to account for its prominence and political resilience as an institution. Professor Friedman's book, Probable Justice: Risk, Insurance, and the Welfare State (Chicago: 2020) is available for those interested in reading further.

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