  We discuss the spectrum of screening masses in a pure gauge theory near the
deconfinement temperature from the point of view of the dimensionally reduced
model describing the spontaneous breaking of the center symmetry. Universality
arguments can be used to predict the values of the mass ratios in the scaling
region of the deconfined phase when the transition is of second order. One such
prediction is that the scalar sector of the screening spectrum in SU(2) pure
gauge theory contains a bound state of the fundamental excitation,
corresponding through universality to the bound state found in the 3D Ising
model and phi^4 theory in the broken symmetry phase. A Monte Carlo evaluation
of the screening masses in the gauge theory confirms the validity of the
prediction. We briefly discuss the possibility of using similar arguments for
first order deconfinement transitions, and in particular for the physically
relevant case of SU(3).
