Denmark: The Survival of a Social Democratic Welfare State
Denmark: The Survival of a Social Democratic Welfare State
According to the efficiency hypothesis, the high-spending, high-tax welfare state in Denmark should be under considerable strain in the era of globalization and socio-economic modernization. Indeed, the Danish welfare state has seen a lot of changes in the last three decades. Most of these changes, however, have not been in line with the expectations of the efficiency thesis. The universal and generous nature of the system has largely been preserved. Furthermore, Denmark has been able to overcome a major socio-economic crisis without relinquishing its commitment to the Scandinavian welfare model. The current cyclical crisis stems from a huge decline in exports. As a consequence, unemployment escalated in the first half of 2009. However, because of its previously excellent labour market performance, Denmark still has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union. This chapter examines welfare state changes in Denmark in four policy sectors in the years from 1973 onwards.
Keywords: Denmark, welfare state, welfare state reforms, Social Democrats, labour market policy, pensions, health care, family policy
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
