The Old Regime (of Mutualisation) and the Revolution (of Big Data)

Abstract

In his classic work L'ancien régime et la révolution, Alexis de Tocqueville proposes a reinterpretation of the French Revolution: behind the spectacular ruptures associated with the event, profound continuities are at play. Beyond the specific case of the French Revolution, Tocqueville calls for vigilance in mobilizing the notion of revolution to account for historical dynamics. In this contribution, I propose to apply this vigilance to account for the supposed “Big Data revolution” in the field of European insurance. Most observers of the sector—whether professionals or academic—agree that the arrival of Big Data represents a major rupture. This break would call into question the business model of insurance companies, stabilized for 250 years around the principle of risk pooling, since it would now be possible to individualize risk management. This individualization of risk management would then reconfigure the nature of solidarity and the social bond at work within Western societies, which, since the end of the 19th century, have been constituted as “insurance societies” (Ewald 1986). On the contrary, I defend the idea that these ruptures are only apparent, incomplete or unfinished, and that the “Big Data Revolution” masks profound continuities, by mobilizing two arguments: attempts to individualize risk management long predate the advent of big data; and attempts to individualize risk management based on big data are, to date, inconclusive.