Original scientific paper
Explaining the Survival of the Swedish Welfare State: Maintaining Political Support Through Incremental Change
Andreas Bergh
; Ratio and Lund University, Sweden
Abstract
Despite challenges and doomsday predictions, the Nordic welfare states with high taxes and public expenditure are still with us. This paper describes strategic choices for policy makers of the welfare state and uses the case of Sweden to argue that the high tax welfare state has survived several challenges through a process of incremental change, where the welfare state is modified in order to maintain political support from voters who would otherwise favor cutbacks. This gradual adaptation leads to heterogeneous universality
characterized by flexibility, freedom of choice, and financial solutions that involve both public and private funding. While such policies may increase inequality, they play a crucial role in maintaining political support for high taxes and expenditures. Compared to likely counterfactual scenarios, this gradual adaptation may be the political strategy that minimizes inequality in the long run.
Keywords
Welfare state; Nordic model; institutional change; taxation
Hrčak ID:
34871
URI
Publication date:
11.11.2008.
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