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A key feature of the Nordic welfare model is provision of welfare services like care, education and health. They are individual entitlements, and collectively financed. It is a prerequisite that contemporary standards of services are provided; thus the public solution is not a second rate solution used only by those who cannot afford better solutions. Can the Nordic welfare model meet this objective in the future? Increasing productivity and wealth challenge this. Services tend to have lower productivity growth and thus to become more expensive (Baumol's cost disease), but also to have a high income elasticity, and thus demands rise alongside improved material living standards (Wagner effects). The same implies to leisure, implying that tax bases may be eroded. In short, expenditures are on an upward drift and revenues on a downward trend, challenging the financial viability of the welfare model. This seems to leave a conundrum for the welfare state in the sense that the success of the model in improving living standards tends to undermine the possibility of attaining key objectives of the welfare state. It is argued that although the welfare state will be financially strained, these challenges can be met without jeopardizing its fundamental objectives.

PurposeIn this article, we examine the historical and cultural foundations of Nordic states' strong contemporary social indicators to understand whether their successes can be replicated in other contexts.Design/methodology/approachWe draw on a range of academic literature to frame a comparison of two regions' cultural and theological roots, identifying contrasts to make arguments about prescriptions for contemporary welfare policy.FindingsWe find Nordic history contributes to a duty-based culture with strong cohesion and social trust. These cultural norms make palatable welfare policies with strong activation measures, while the US model prefers to avoid the latter because of its strong cultural orientation to rights and autonomy.Social implicationsTo mitigate differences between the Nordic states and other cultural contexts, policymakers seeking to replicate Nordic welfare successes should consider welfare programming that combines stronger activation policies with oversight and relational components that mitigate gaps in social cohesion.Originality/valueWe uniquely bring together the literature on comparative welfare policy and on religion and culture to understand the precursors of contemporary attitudes and their implications for welfare policy prescriptions.

What lies ahead for the Nordic Model? is a discussion paper on the future of the Nordic welfare model in a global competition economy. The Nordic Council of Ministers' Program on Welfare Research (2000–2005) concludes that we have a Nordic welfare model. The discussion paper sums up important results, analyses, and messages conveyed by the research projects. Leading politicians, heads of labor-market organizations, and welfare researchers in the Nordic countries have presented their views on the Nordic welfare societies' strengths and weaknesses, and the most important challenges they face in the years to come. The report points to the major challenges that the Nordic welfare states will have to meet so that they will be able to balance the further evolution of the welfare state with their position in the global competition economy.

The EU Renewable Energy Strategy (RES) Directive requires that each member state obtain 20% of its energy supply from renewable sources by 2020. If fully implemented, this implies major changes in institutions, infrastructure, land use, and natural resource flows. This study applies a political geography perspective to explore the transition to renewable energy use in the heating and cooling segment of the Swedish energy system, 1980–2010. The Nordic welfare model, which developed mainly after the Second World War, required relatively uniform, standardized local and regional authorities functioning as implementation agents for national politics. Since 1980, the welfare orientation has gradually been complemented by competition politics promoting technological change, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This combination of welfare state organization and competition politics provided the dynamics necessary for energy transition, which occurred in a semi-public sphere of actors at various geographical scales. However, our analysis, suggest that this was partly an unintended policy outcome, since it was based on a welfare model with no significant energy aims. Our case study suggests that state organization plays a significant role, and that the EU RES Directive implementation will be uneven across Europe, reflecting various welfare models with different institutional pre-requisites for energy transition.

Denne afhandling tager dens udgangspunkt I det faktum, at en særlig velfærdsmodel findes i de Nordiske lande. Denne velfærdsmodel har rødder tilbage til slutningen af 1900-tallet og har, over tid, adskilt sig fra andre velfærdsmodeller på særligt tre områder: En nøglerolle for staten når det kommer til at levere velfærd til borgerne, særligt inden for ældre pleje og børnepasning, og en større grad af universelle velfærdsydelser. Historiske studier viser, at opbakningen til denne velfærdsmodel blev skabt gennem en kombination af faktorer der gjorde det muligt at skabe denne velfærdsmodel og politiske aktører der greb disse muligheder. Disse historiske faktorer, der hjalp med at skabe opbakning til velfærdsstaten, er dog blevet svækket med tiden, mens støtten til modellen forbliver stabil. Denne umiddelbare modsætning er denne afhandlings omdrejningspunkt. Derfor vender jeg I denne afhandling fokus imod de nordiske velfærdsstater for at forklare denne stabilitet. Her kan allerede eksisterende teorier hjælpe mig med at forklare hvordan de faktorer de får den nordiske velfærdstatsmodel til at adskille sig også kan forklare stabiliteten i opbakningen. Disse teorier beskriver dog oftest ikke hvordan disse processer med at skabe opbakning til de nordiske velfærdstater fungerer på et mikro-niveau, altså hvordan dette der gør den nordiske velfærdsmodel særligt påvirker opbakningen til velfærdsmodellen og derigennem hjælper med at reproducere den. Til at skabe sådanne mikro-forklaringer vil jeg trække på policy feedback teori, som den primære teoretiske ramme, og ud fra dette beskrive og teste sociale mekanismer der kan forklare den vedvarende opbakning til velfærdsmodellen. Disse social mekanismer eksisterer ikke kun i de nordiske lande, men skulle være mere udbredt her, og kan dermed hjælpe med at forklare stabiliteten i opbakningen til velfærdsmodellen. Samlet set peger resultaterne ikke på en forklaring på opbakningen til den nordiske velfærdsmodel. I stedet viser resultaterne i artiklerne en række forskellige måder at skabe opbakning på, samt to tilfælde hvor opbakningen til velfærdsmodellen er under pres, men ikke forsvinder. Denne afhandling ikke kan afdække det samlede billede af mekanismer der oppebærer støtten, samt mulige trusler imod støtten til velfærdsmodellen, men jeg mener, at den behandler nogle af de vigtigste.

AbstractCare leavers need support in the transition to adulthood. Care leavers in Norway benefit from the universalistic and somewhat generous Nordic welfare model. However, this model is constructed to meet general needs identified in the whole population. More specific needs in smaller groups may not be so well planned for. The article discusses this dilemma in the light of two previously published articles by the author and two co‐authors, where the topics are the history of leaving care support in Norway and how the Nordic welfare model may represent a problematic frame for leaving care support. The 'parental functions' of child welfare and social services are discussed and so is the connection between the welfare model's ability to cover up for the needs of the many versus the few and vulnerable.

This article explores whether and how the neo-liberal ideology has adapted to the Nordic welfare model by studying the attitudes of voters and grass-roots members of the Danish party Liberal Alliance towards the welfare state. This inquiry into one of the key issues for the neo-liberal ideology is inspired by theory on how an ideology will adapt to its context. The expectation outlined in the article is for the neo-liberals of this party to favour features that make the Nordic welfare model distinctive – extensive governmental responsibility, especially for children and the elderly, and a universalistic approach to providing welfare. I have explored this question using a mixed-methods approach, where I analyse a survey of voters and interviews with grass-roots members of the party. Combined this shows that the neo-liberals in Liberal Alliance do support a role for the welfare state that extends beyond a minimum welfare state, especially for the care of children, but they view old age and retirement mostly as a problem each individual must deal with. Regarding the universalistic approach to providing welfare, the neo-liberals seem torn between two different tendencies, one being a perception of a fair way to provide welfare and the other the idea of a selective welfare state as a neo-liberal core idea, which leads to ambivalent attitudes. I argue that this results in a form of the neo-liberal ideology that has adapted to the Nordic welfare model.

The aim of this article is to review the ideas presented by the Nordic scholars of the 'Welfare State Model - Nordic Experiences and Perspectives in Lithuania' project and to discuss the applicability of these ideas to the Lithuanian context. During the program, held in Lithuania, in 2013-2014, Nordic scholars and their Lithuanian colleagues debated Nordic welfare model features such as active labour market policies, family policies, digital welfare innovations, the role of culture, and social trust. They also discussed contemporary challenges to Nordic success. The project intended to: promote the Nordic countries' experiences of becoming welfare states, increase knowledge of the Nordic welfare model among Lithuanians, and initiate a debate on the potential for this model to function in Lithuania. Adapted from the source document.

THE CURRENT NORDIC WELFARE STATE MODEL -- THE CURRENT NORDIC WELFARE STATE MODEL -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- Chapter 1 THE NARRATIVE OF THE NORDIC WELFARE STATE MODEL -- Abstract -- International Reference to the Model -- European Socioeconomic Models -- The Nordic Welfare-State Socioeconomic Administrative Tradition -- Comparing the Continental and the Anglo-Saxon Socioeconomic Administrative Traditions with the Nordic One -- Labor-Market Policy - A Comparative Approach -- Economic Bias of the Nordic Socioeconomic Model -- The Stagflation Crisis Changed Policies