The Welfare State: The Challenges of Sustainability

It is nothing new that ‘the welfare state’ faces serious challenges. Ever since the 1970s, Western welfare states have by many researchers been regarded as being in crisis, but despite many policy adjustments and important variations among Western welfare states, the overall scope of the welfare state, as measured by social expenditure per capita, has by and large increased. At the same time, we can observe a globalization of social policy and the emergence of a more active social role of the state in many parts of the world during recent decades. But new challenges due to a variety of new security issues and new dimensions of uncertainty have appeared, not least following the unanticipated Russian large-scale invasion of and war on Ukraine and concomitant international political developments. Political unease about the future of the welfare state and scope of social policies in different parts of the world has escalated. Welfare political priorities must compete with increased priorities for defense, cyber security, and issues related to energy, climate, food, and the environment. Motivations for state responsibility for citizen welfare and well-being – as well as for the type and scope of responsibility - vary. The fate of the welfare state and social policies is clearly a question of political and normative commitment to what kind of socially active state is desired. The paper addresses the following topics: Why should a state be socially active? What were historical reasons for developing welfare states? What are current motivations for developing and maintaining welfare states? What are the economic, political, and moral dimensions of welfare state sustainability? In addition to possible national political responses to social challenges, it is argued that in a globalized world reinforced international cooperation, coordination and regulation may be necessary to achieve sustainability of (national) welfare states

The Gender Cleavage: Updating Rokkanian Theory for the Twenty-First Century

This article develops Stein Rokkan’s cleavage theory to include the gender cleavage. It discusses the gender cleavage’s structural, cultural, and organizational dimensions. The extent to which the gender cleavage becomes manifest is related to the overall cleavage structure. The gender cleavage has been comparatively more salient in Europe’s Protestant North than in other Western countries. Incorporating gender conflicts into the Rokkanian framework may lead to a richer understanding of welfare regime development.publishedVersio

Introduction: Human Security at 20 - Lysøen Revisited

The 1994 Human Development Report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), introduced and formalized the concept of human security. The UN agency argued that the concept of security should be expanded beyond the traditional state-centric, politico-military dimension. According to the Report, human security means economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political security. The concept is generally defined as freedom from fear (from direct physical violence) and freedom from want (from indirect and nonphysical or structural violence) (UNDP 1994). Although the idea of human security was not entirely new, the UNDP Report made a global impact on intellectual and policy thinking. Sorpong Peou (2014) argues that the study of human security has now emerged as an academic field. However, as David Black, Astri Suhrke and others point out in their respective articles in this special issue, human security as a normative concept has lost much of its persuasive power among policymakers. Our purpose here is not to ignore this policy challenge but to assess the progress the human security agenda has made, identify remaining obstacles, and continue the search for more creative ways that would help us build a more humane world

The Nordic welfare state model

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Fra åben til hemmelig afstemning: Aspekter af et partisystems udvikling

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