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Nationalist Reframing of the F innish and S wedish Welfare States – The Nexus of Nationalism and Social Policy in Far‐right Populist Parties
Author(s) -
Nordensvard Johan,
Ketola Markus
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12095
Subject(s) - nationalism , welfare state , populism , nexus (standard) , political economy , social policy , political science , sociology , politics , state (computer science) , cognitive reframing , sovereignty , democracy , law , algorithm , computer science , embedded system , psychology , social psychology
The rise of right‐wing populist parties in the N ordic countries is slowly redefining the N ordic social democratic discourse of the universal and egalitarian welfare state. The nexus of nationalism and social policy has been explored in regions and countries such as Q uebec, S cotland, B elgium and the UK , but the change of discourse in the N ordic countries has received less attention. Taking the case of S weden and F inland, this article argues that N ordic populism does not question the redistributive welfare state per se as many other E uropean neo‐liberal far‐right parties have done. Instead, it reframes the welfare state as being linked to a sovereign and exclusive S wedish and F innish political community with distinct national boundaries. Although S weden and F inland largely share a common welfare nation state discourse, the article also points to important differences in the way this discourse is able to frame the welfare nation state where access to, and the design of, social services are no longer universal and egalitarian but based around ethnicity. The article aims to demonstrate this through an analysis of the welfare discourses of two populist parties: S weden D emocrats and T rue F inns.