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State institutions, political power and social policy choices: Reconstructing the origins of Nordic models of social policy
Author(s) -
LIN KA,
CARROLL EERO
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00301.x
Subject(s) - welfare state , divergence (linguistics) , power (physics) , politics , social policy , state (computer science) , political economy , left wing politics , german , political science , period (music) , social democracy , narrative , sociology , law , history , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , acoustics
. The origins of the Nordic social policy model(s) need to be viewed broadly and historically from its late nineteenth‐century initiation to the immediate postwar period (1940s to the early 1960s), when a social democratic model began to consolidate. In reference to the alternate social policy traditions of British poor relief and German occupational insurance, this article analyzes the sociopolitical contexts that finally prevented Scandinavian states from developing similarly, instead enabling development of universalistic social policy. The historical narratives are arranged with respect to four analytical aspects: policy development; the configuration of state institutions; the strength of liberal, conservative and leftist power blocs; and intra‐Nordic divergence in all these respects. Such an approach integrates state‐centred and power‐resources‐focused analyses of Nordic welfare.