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Radical Reform Or Piecemeal Adjustments? The Case of Finnish Family Policy Reforms
Author(s) -
Nyby Josefine,
Nygård Mikael,
Blum Sonja
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
european policy analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.558
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 2380-6567
DOI - 10.1002/epa2.1045
Subject(s) - universalism , social security , social policy , welfare , economics , welfare reform , public economics , economic system , political science , economic policy , market economy , politics , law
Since the economic crisis, many welfare states reformed their social security systems to cut social expenditure, even in policy fields protecting the most vulnerable, such as family policy. Using qualitative content analysis, this article systematically examines reforms pursued in Finnish family policy 2007–2017, and establishes the direction and magnitude of these reforms. The result show that these fields were frequently reformed, containing both expanding and contracting policy adjustments, as well as contracting structural reforms. The result also show that the “Nordic” principle of universalism was slightly weakened and the principle of selectivity somewhat strengthened during this period.