This book tells the story of how the International Labour Organisation came in 2012 to recommend to all countries that they should establish a Social Protection Floor (SPF), containing basic social security guarantees that ensure that over the life cycle all in need could afford and have access to essential health care and income security. It is the story of how the concept of a “global social floor” was transformed from a term used by global social reformists at the turn of the century challenging neo-liberal globalization into a concrete global social policy measure. It covers the internal p ... More

This book tells the story of how the International Labour Organisation came in 2012 to recommend to all countries that they should establish a Social Protection Floor (SPF), containing basic social security guarantees that ensure that over the life cycle all in need could afford and have access to essential health care and income security. It is the story of how the concept of a “global social floor” was transformed from a term used by global social reformists at the turn of the century challenging neo-liberal globalization into a concrete global social policy measure. It covers the internal politics of one of the major UN international organizations, throwing light upon the respective roles of governments, employers and trade unions on the one hand, and the permanent Secretariat of the ILO on the other. It also describes the struggle to win other agencies in the ‘system’ of global social governance over to supporting this idea. It tells how the UN, the World Bank and the G20 all came to endorse the concept. More than a case study, the book sets out an analytical framework for understanding global social policy change and provides a critical assessment of the global social governance system.