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The concept of governance is intrinsically connected to the study of change. The relations between state and society are changing, and as the boundaries between the two become more blurred, governing societal affairs is getting more complex. Not surprisingly, over recent years, there has been a growing literature on welfare governance and change. Building on this body of literature, the contribution of this e-book is two-fold: (1) Using elderly care as a case study, the issue analyses the complexity of welfare governance by looking at changes in both the vertical and the horizontal dimensions

This collection addresses the ways that Nordic countries have approached the issue of bringing ethnic minorities into the societal mainstream. With multicultural incorporation as an option, the authors explore the potential impact of the politics of identity in societies with social democratic welfare states committed to redistributive politics.

With reference to an extensive comparative study of the Nordic economic political models, this article discusses some perspectives for the 1990s. Five economic political models developed as the Nordic area was integrated into the postwar world economy. They emerged as the Nordic countries — on the basis of their specific geo-economic and political-institutional conditions — emulated the Fordist growth model, which originated in the US. The downturn of the Western world economy was a crisis for the Fordist mass consumption/mass production model. We trace the consequences of this crisis for the Nordic models. Policy makers first tried to maintain the established routines of the 1960s, but failed, fumbled and finally turned to more austere, neo liberal economic policies. As a result, there seems to be a certain convergence between the five models, a specific Nordic version of neo-liberalism. Despite this, we doubt that continued neoliberal policies will prove able to cope with the challenges that the Nordic countries face as the world heads into the 1990s. Neoliberal policies aim to promote flexibility by reducing the impact of the state, by liberalizing labour markets and by relying on full integration within the world economy. Alternatively, we argue in our last section that policies should aim to promote flexible specialization by making the welfare state a comparative advantage in connection with industrial policies, by extending efforts at democratization of decisions concerning labour process organ ization and work environment, and by stimulating Nordic integration.

With reference to an extensive comparative study of the Nordic economic political models, this article discusses some perspectives for the 1990s. Five economic political models developed as the Nordic area was integrated into the postwar world economy. They emerged as the Nordic countries — on the basis of their specific geo-economic and political-institutional conditions — emulated the Fordist growth model, which originated in the US. The downturn of the Western world economy was a crisis for the Fordist mass consumption/mass production model. We trace the consequences of this crisis for the Nordic models. Policy makers first tried to maintain the established routines of the 1960s, but failed, fumbled and finally turned to more austere, neo liberal economic policies. As a result, there seems to be a certain convergence between the five models, a specific Nordic version of neo-liberalism. Despite this, we doubt that continued neoliberal policies will prove able to cope with the challenges that the Nordic countries face as the world heads into the 1990s. Neoliberal policies aim to promote flexibility by reducing the impact of the state, by liberalizing labour markets and by relying on full integration within the world economy. Alternatively, we argue in our last section that policies should aim to promote flexible specialization by making the welfare state a comparative advantage in connection with industrial policies, by extending efforts at democratization of decisions concerning labour process organ ization and work environment, and by stimulating Nordic integration.

PurposeTo clarify the core characteristics of Nordic activation policies in the context of typologies of European activation governance.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses activation governance in the light of the basic values and beliefs behind the formation of the Nordic social protection systems in the mid‐20th century. Recent model‐building efforts see the Nordic countries as being close to a "universalistic" and egalitarian type of activation policy that does not systematically submit citizens to work requirements. The authors ask whether this model captures the actual scope and contents of Nordic activation governance.FindingsThe Nordic countries‐based relatively generous income security systems on a strong work ethic and ambitions to maximise labour market participation of the working‐age population. Citizens's rights to income security were generally linked to the fulfilment of work requirements. Although this active governance of unemployed citizens eroded in the 1970s and 1980s all the Nordic countries revived it after 1990. Largely reflecting the dual structure of the income protection system, Nordic active approaches to activation are not egalitarian.Research limitations/implicationsNordic countries are currently implementing major administrative reforms in social protection, possibly creating more unified and egalitarian governance of activation. Future research needs to assess the impact of these reforms.Originality/valueThe article presents an analysis of activation policies that so far has been missing from comparative research and that will be of particular value for non‐Nordic readers who may have received a biased view of Nordic activation policies.

Welfare benefits in the Nordic countries are often tied to employment. We argue that this is one of the factors behind the success of the Nordic model, where a comprehensive welfare state is associated with high employment. In a general equilibrium setting, the underlining mechanism works through wage moderation and job creation. The benefits make it more important to hold a job, thus lower wages will be accepted, and more jobs created. Moreover, we show that the incentive to acquire higher education improves, further boosting employment in the long run. These positive effects help counteracting the negative impact of taxation.