Employers’ Mutuals and Accident Insurance Scheme in Spain: From Rejection to Control and Collaboration (1966–1990)

Abstract

[Abstract]: This article discusses the role of employers and their organizations in promoting or hindering social insurance schemes and, ultimately, the welfare state. Unlike most studies that center on countries in periods of democracy, this research focuses on the role of employers, and specifically employers’ mutuals, in the development of the industrial accident scheme during the Franco dictatorship in Spain. The institutional elimination of the class struggle, by repressing the working class and prohibiting classbased unions, led to an evolution of the industrial accident scheme and employers’ liabilities that revolved around the interrelationship between employers and the state. While employers tried to keep control of the management and low cost of the insurance, the state maintained significant bureaucratic intervention and increased auditing and control. The democratic period that began in 1977 prolonged the structure fostered during the Franco regime and enhanced the power of the mutuals in managing this insurance.

This work was supported by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund, and Spain’sMinistry of Science and Innovation—State Research Agency—for the project entitled “The historical keys of hospital development in Spain and its international comparison during the twentieth century.” Number RTI2018-094676-B-I00.