The Nordic Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 802-825
Author(s):  
Mikko Kautto ◽  
Kati Kuitto
Keyword(s):  
Social Performance ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Labour Market Participation ◽  
Distinctive Type ◽  
Welfare Model ◽  
Core Features

This chapter discusses the descriptive premises of the notion of a distinctive Nordic welfare model. It asks in what sense the Nordic welfare states constitute a distinctive type, and whether its core features have remained stable in recent decades. The global interest in the Nordic model is best explained by Nordic countries’ long record of good economic and social performance, as well as its anticipated ideological foundations of egalitarianism and universalism. Despite the continuous challenges of past decades, and in part differing welfare policy responses to those, the Nordic countries still bear some ‘family resemblance’, especially when viewed in a broader comparative framework. The empirical assessment provided in this chapter shows that the strong emphasis on public services and social investment still distinguishes the Nordic welfare states from others. The inbuilt emphasis on labour market participation of the Nordic countries lays the foundation and continuity for the tax-based welfare state.

Changing Scandinavian Welfare States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jørgen Goul Andersen ◽  
Mi Ah Schoyen ◽  
Bjørn Hvinden
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Political Challenge ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Work First ◽  
Welfare Model

The Scandinavian welfare model is characterized by high spending, strong universal public services, high social investment, and relatively high equality in gender roles. The three main Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) have successfully reformed their welfare systems to contain costs and manage population ageing. They have reformed unemployment and disability benefits to increase labour force participation and have cut spending on activation, although it remains relatively high. They have maintained strong employment levels. There are real differences in development pathways: Denmark has experienced the most stringent financial pressures, has cut spending, and moved towards work-first benefits most strongly; oil revenues have sustained the tax base in Norway and permitted the country to make relatively few changes; Sweden has cut the rates of unemployment benefits sharply and moved furthest in expanding the private-market delivery of services. Immigration is a major political challenge in Denmark and is emerging as such in Norway, but not in Sweden.

Basic Income in the UK: Assessing Prospects for Reform in an Age of Austerity

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Martinelli ◽  
Nick Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Welfare States ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
System A ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Core Features ◽  
European Welfare States

Of all the European welfare states, the UK most clearly represents the liberal regime type – notwithstanding a shift towards ‘social investment’ under New Labour – as defined by its residual, targeted benefit structure and increasingly punitive activation regime. The idiosyncratic institutional characteristics of the UK welfare state give rise to challenges and opportunities with respect to prospects for the introduction of (some form of) basic income. Despite a large and growing population of ‘disaffected’ precarious and low-paid workers and widespread dissatisfaction with the increasingly punitive sanctions regime, significant barriers to the emergence of a sufficiently large and coherent constituency of support for basic income remain. Thus, while institutional inertia and political considerations may preclude anything more than marginal changes to the existing system, a number of policy options falling short of a ‘full’ basic income – but retaining some of its core features – appear relatively feasible.

scholarly journals Social policy in Slovenia and Montenegro: Comparing development and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-712
Author(s):  
Maša Filipovič Hrast ◽  
Uglješa Janković ◽  
Tatjana Rakar
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Welfare Model

AbstractSlovenia and Montenegro have a common past; however, they have also experienced diverse developments in the field of social policy over the last three decades. The social policy of the two countries is based on a Yugoslav welfare model, and yet the positions of the two countries were quite rather different even as part of Federal Yugoslavia, with Slovenia being one of the most developed territories within the federation, while Montenegro was one of the least developed. In this article, we will describe the position and main challenges of the transition of the two countries from 1990 in relation to the developments and changes in the core fields of social policy, such as the labour market and social assistance, family policy and old age policy. The emphasis will be on linking the diverse starting points, the process of transition and the direction of developments, within the framework of path dependent changes in the two welfare systems, as well as a discussion of the relevant structural pressures, such as the economic and social situation of the two countries and ways of coping with these pressures that were employed. In the conclusion, the changes within the individual fields of social policy will also be discussed in relation to the prevalent discourses of the neoliberal transformation of modern welfare states, along with the development of social investment perspectives within social policy as a whole.

A Social Investment Turn in East Asia?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Fleckenstein ◽  
Soohyun Christine Lee
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Employment Participation

The welfare states of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were built by conservative elites to serve the project of late industrialization, and for this reason the East Asian developmental welfare state focused its resources on those who were deemed most important for economic development (especially male industrial workers). Starting in the 1990s and increasingly since the 2000s, the developmental welfare state has experienced a far-reaching transformation, including the expansion of family policy to address the post-industrial challenges of female employment participation and low fertility. This chapter assesses social investment policies in East Asia, with a focus on family policy and on the South Korean case, where the most comprehensive rise of social investment policies were observed.

scholarly journals Social Investment, Redistribution or Basic Income? Exploring the Association Between Automation Risk and Welfare State Attitudes in Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
MARIUS R. BUSEMEYER ◽  
ALEXANDER H. J. SAHM
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Rapid technological change – the digitalization and automation of work – is challenging contemporary welfare states. Most of the existing research, however, focuses on its effect on labor market outcomes, such as employment or wage levels. In contrast, this paper studies the implications of technological change for welfare state attitudes and preferences. Compared to previous work on this topic, this paper adopts a much broader perspective regarding different kinds of social policy. Using data from the European Social Survey, we find that individual automation risk is positively associated with support for redistribution, but negatively with support for social investment policies (partly depending on the specific measure of automation risk that is used), while there is no statistically significant association with support for basic income. We also find a moderating effect of the overall size of the welfare state on the micro-level association between risk and preferences.

scholarly journals The governors of school markets? Local education authorities, school choice and equity in Finland and Sweden

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne Varjo ◽  
Ulf Lundström ◽  
Mira Kalalahti
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
Geographic Origin ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Local Education ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunities ◽  
Choice Policy ◽  
Welfare Model

As one of the key elements of the Nordic welfare model, education systems are based on the idea of providing equal educational opportunities, regardless of gender, social class and geographic origin. Since the 1990s, Nordic welfare states have undergone a gradual but wide-ranging transformation towards a more market-based mode of public service delivery. Along this trajectory, the advent of school choice policy and the growing variation in the between-school achievement results have diversified the previously homogenous Nordic education systems. The aim of our paper is to analyse how Finnish and Swedish local education authorities comprehend and respond to the intertwinement of the market logic of school choice and the ideology of equality. The data consist of two sets of in-depth thematic interviews with staff from the local providers of education, municipal education authorities. The analysis discloses the ways in which national legislation has authorized municipal authorities to govern the provision of education.

scholarly journals Smaller net or just fewer to catch? Disentangling the causes for the varying sizes of minimum income schemes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Tervola ◽  
Merita Jokela ◽  
Joonas Ollonqvist
Keyword(s):  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Weak Evidence

The sizes of minimum income schemes vary significantly even in welfare states that are considered similar. For example among Nordic countries, the share of recipients is almost double in Finland compared to Nordic peers. Considering the strong political will to diminish the receipt of last-resort benefits, we demonstrate a methodological framework to evaluate the reasons for varying number of beneficiaries and apply it to two Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden. By using microsimulation of eligibility rates, we examine the role of social assistance legislation, first-tier benefits and non-take-up. Relatively high number of beneficiaries in Finland is traced back to social assistance policies such as higher norm levels and earning disregard but also to lower non-take-up rate of social assistance benefits, which potentially reflects looser discretion and asset test. We also find some, albeit weak, evidence that the implementation reform of social assistance in Finland 2017 has further reduced non-take-up.

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