Scandinavian Welfare State Model Research Articles

Stå på tomma torg: Hinder för tillhörighet i bosnisk migrationslitteratur

The immigration of Bosnians to the Scandinavian countries in connection to the war in the 1990s is largely seen as a success. Aspects such as high employment and education levels has been foregrounded as indicating integration and personal accomplishment, especially among the younger population. However, the literature produced by Bosnian immigrant authors tells a different story, which focuses rather on personal hardships and obstacles in the affective and social “positionality” of the immigrant in the Scandinavian topography. Regarding texts by authors such as Alen Mešković, Bekim Sejranović, and Adnan Mahmutović, the article surveys recurrent themes associated with the immigrant’s inability to create belonging in the host country, such as the encounter with immigrant authorities or the continuous non-contact with Scandinavians. While the texts are not typical examples of literary “welfare criticism”, the article tries to suggest some ways in which these texts produce critique of mechanisms in the Scandinavian welfare state model.

Central versus Local Service Regulation: Accounting for Diverging Old‐age Care Developments in Sweden and Denmark, 1980–2000

Abstract In Sweden and Denmark, the development of old‐age care has followed markedly divergent paths over the past 20 years. In both countries, the level of old‐age care universalism was exceptionally high in the early 1980s. Since then it has dropped sharply in Sweden, while remaining constantly high in Denmark. These divergent trends are clearly irreconcilable with the common image of a coherent Scandinavian welfare state model, and they seem hard to explain with reference to traditional approaches of comparative social policy. This article attempts to account for the divergent developments by focusing on the balance of old‐age care regulation between central and local government. The main finding is that only in Sweden has the central regulation of old‐age care been weak and unspecific. As a consequence, Swedish municipalities have enjoyed sufficient autonomous, regulatory competence to exercise certain local retrenchment measures in times of austerity, thereby eventually causing a nationwide weakening of old‐age care universalism. By contrast, municipalities in Denmark have been much more tightly bound by central state regulations which have prevented them from imposing similar retrenchment measures in the old‐age care sector; consequently, Denmark's level of old‐age care universalism has remained comparatively high.

Social inequality in health: Dichotomy or gradient?: A comparative study of problematizations in national public health programmes

Recent public health programmes from four countries: Denmark, England, Norway, and Sweden, are studied to analyse how social inequality in health is described, explained and suggested to be tackled, i.e., the problematization or the discursive process whereby the issue is framed and made accessible to political action. Social inequality in health is defined in these programmes both as a disadvantaged minority with major health problems, in contrast to the rest of the population, i.e., as a dichotomy; and as a gradient in which health problems are seen as increasing with lower social class or educational level. The causes of health inequality are identified as behaviour, social relations and underlying social structures. Policies aimed at reducing health inequality can be characterized as either in accordance with a residual welfare state model, targeting the disadvantaged, or a universal model, addressing the whole population. All countries have policies that are mixtures of these problematizations, but with some systematic differences between the countries. In this field England resembles the Scandinavian countries, as much as they resemble each other dispelling the idea of a Nordic or Scandinavian welfare state model.

Scandinavian Activation Strategies in the 1990s: Recasting Social Citizenship and the Scandinavian Welfare Model

Traditionally Sweden is heralded as epitomising the Scandinavian welfare model, not least to its perceived success in keeping unemployment and labour market inequalities low whilst still securing social protection and economic growth. In contrast, Denmark and Finland have been conceived as the Scandinavian “welfare laggards” primarily due to comparatively rudimentary active labour market policies. The development since 1990 has put an end to that. In fact there has been a role reversal. Denmark and Finland has been the most innovative in recasting a new Scandinavian activation strategy with a series of fundamental changes to their unemployment insurance and active labour market policies. Sweden followed their lead in 2001. This paper analyse these developments that have not been adequately addressed in the comparative welfare state research literature. It shows how the recast Scandinavian activation strategy is fundamentally different from the one prevalent at the onset of the 1990s, including in Sweden. Today social rights to economic compensation are complemented with rights to economic participation, and the obligations of unemployed to strive to become self-supportive have been markedly strengthened. The focus of active labour market policies is no longer to give unemployed new rights to benefit periods, but rather to aid them into work. As a consequence, the nature of social citizenship has changed towards a greater emphasis on participation just as the Scandinavian welfare state model have a greater degree of re-commodification than previously when de-commodification was at centre stage. This transformation of the Scandinavian welfare state has helped overcome some of the underlying pressures towards greater inequalities whilst still maintaining good social protection and without hampering economic growth.

Ways forward for the welfare state in the twenty-first century

Pressure from the internationalization of economies and the globalization of nationally defined and managed welfare states could be a reason for converging trends in welfare states. On the other hand, it could be a reason for developing a more uniform type of welfare state, since a more uniform type, it could be assumed, would be under less pressure than a number of differing types. This may apply in particular in the case of welfare state models with high emphasis on state.nancing, such as the Scandinavian welfare state model, which, it has been argued, has come under immense pressure from globalization.According to Geyer, this pressure would imply that: “the welfare states of the advanced industrial countries should become increasingly similar as the forces of globalization squeeze them into a market-oriented welfare-state model. In essence it does not matter whether the national institutional contexts are conservative or social democratic, if the welfare state is conservative, liberal or social democratic; or if a leftist or rightist party is in power, the constraints have become so extreme that only market-conforming welfare-state structures will be allowed.” But it also seems that “despite undeniable problems posed by economic internationalisation, social democratic welfare states and employment regimes have proven to be highly resilient.“ This article will discuss these contradictory viewpoints by way of analysing convergence, especially on the macro-level.

The Scandinavian Welfare State Model: The Impact of the Public Sector on Segregation and Gender Equality

Comparative studies of sex segregation indicate that the levels in the Scandinavian countries are high, especially in Norway. Observers tend to link this to various aspects of the social democratic welfare state. This article examines the thesis that the public sector in the Scandinavian welfare state model is an attractive employer for women, with regard to both working conditions and wages. The data consist of a sample from the 1990 Norwegian population census of men and women between the age of 40 and 45. The economic consequences of the same occupational choices are shown to vary for men and women. The men have greater earnings advantages if they choose occupations in the private sector with low proportions of women. The earnings advantages for women in such occupations, compared to women in public sector occupations, are far lower. Further, the earnings of women in private sector male-dominated occupations are influenced by their childcare responsibilities. The higher the childcare responsibilities, the lower the earnings. No effects of childcare responsibilities are found among women in public sector occupations with large proportions of men. These findings thus indicate that the size and the organisation of the public sector in Scandinavia contributes to sex segregation in the labour market.

The Scandinavian Welfare State Model: The Impact of the Public Sector on Segregation and Gender Equality

The Scandinavian Welfare State Model: The Impact of the Public Sector on Segregation and Gender Equality