Open AccessAdministrative Traditions – and the Problem of the “Trilemma”
Author(s) -
Noralv Veggeland
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
studies in asian social science/studies in asian social science.
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2330-2151
pISSN - 2330-2143
DOI - 10.5430/sass.v5n1p1
Subject(s) - trilemma , european union , sovereignty , welfare state , european integration , politics , state (computer science) , member state , political science , sovereign state , social policy , welfare , economics , economic system , political economy , public economics , international trade , law , member states , macroeconomics , monetary policy , algorithm , computer science
The purpose of this paper is to show that the administration of a modern welfare state is a complex thing. The statemeets the challenge of the “trilemma”. Social policy formation does fundamentally relay on the outcome of the debateabout the future of the European welfare state. From the perspective of the political-economic approach, social policyformation is a dependent variable to both European integration policy and national administrative traditions. However,the national state does not act in a sovereign manner neither in relation to the European Union (EU) nor to domesticmember actors. All of them confronted with a so-called “trilemma” aspect, a term first introduced by the US socialscientist Torben Iversen (2005). In this paper, I follow up his analysis and shows the difficult choices that confrontspolicy-makers on the different administrative levels because of this trilemma and its trade-offs. New PublicManagement ideas are dominant and for the time being confront the other ruling administrative social traditions ofWestern Europe. In this paper, I conclude that a European agreement on a social choice, related to the overcome oftrilemma, must be accomplished to save the welfare state model as we know it. The traditional Nordic welfare statemodel gives an example.