Hyvinvointivaltio ja julkisen sektorin kasvu Pohjoismaissa

Authors

• Tuovi Allén

Abstract

In Scandinavian countries the implementation of the welfare state largely coincided with the political consolidation of social democracy between the 1930’s and the first post-war decade. The reformist socialist labour movements have always seen social policy as an integral part of their political strategy. The primary objective has been to weaken ’wage-earners’ dependence on market forces (i.e. »decommodification»). According to Titmuss’ typology labour movements have attempted to create »institutional» welfare states. Scandinavian countries are often considered as if there exists a common »model» of welfare state. However, the development in each country has been influenced, on the one hand, by different political factors (i.e. strong labour parties or broad political consensus), and on the other hand, by differences in national economic policies that have shaped the development of social security and the rate of »institutionalization» of the welfare state (i.e. the level and coverage of social security, the integration of social policy to general economic policy-mix). In these respects the Scandinavian countries can be divided into two groups. Denmark and Sweden are deficit countries with high tax rates and developed social security systems. Finland, Iceland and Norway are rather surplus countries with lighter tax burdens and more »backward» social policies.