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Within the same welfare state model, Norway and Sweden have established very different models for personal assistance. Sweden has developed a model with a strong consumerist profile with extensive rights and choices for users. In Norway, state control of the arrangement has been stronger. Users' rights have been weaker and decisions are left to the discretion of the professionals in the welfare services. Recent political signals in both countries indicate that the models might converge in the future. In Sweden, authorities are worried that users' rights have become too extensive. Efforts have been made to restrict users' rights and to make public control stronger. In Norway, the target group for the arrangement has been extended and stronger individual rights to obtain personal assistance are proposed. The article will clarify the tendencies in the two countries and discuss the consequences – for the arrangement and for the users' control over their assistance.

The concept of empowerment has been closely linked to the development of personal assistance (PA) and the independent living ideology. However, the use of the concept of empowerment has been disputed as it has begun to be used in both the marketization of the PA scheme and as a government strategy to promote active partnership. In this article, we take a closer look at the concept of empowerment and how different approaches capture different relationships between the state and the users of PA. We distinguish between empowerment as a form of resistance, as a form of consumer choice, as co-productions and as a liberal strategy of dominance in the modern society. The analysis indicates how the different notions of empowerment run alongside each other in the development of the PA arrangement in the Scandinavian countries and that the different perspectives will have different consequences when PA is to be analysed as a tool of liberation for disabled people.