In this article, based on empirical research conducted in Sweden, Finland and Norway, I argue that Nordic elites continue to endorse the importance of the values of the Nordic welfare model, but that this discourse is now in direct conflict with the debate about financing the
welfare state and concrete policy reforms being pursued.
"The United States, with the greatest ability and the weakest desire to finance a
welfare state, winds up in the middle of the pack in terms of the absolute value of the resources devoted to it." He points out that economic growth still has occurred, even with sizable
welfare states.
Yet liberals regard steadily growing prosperity as an opportunity to expand the
welfare state rather than reduce its growth.
One of Britain's greatest historians, Eric Hobsbawm, has noted that the British
welfare state was "a marriage between economic liberalism (Keynes and Beveridge) and social democracy (the Labour movement) with substantial borrowing from the USSR which had pioneered the idea of economic planning.'' DYLAN MURPHY Marsden
European advocates of the free market never proved sufficient to roll back the
welfare state. Even Margaret Thatcher failed to touch the National Health Service.
The aim of the programme is to show the impact of the
welfare state from the 1920s to today.
In the existing system's scenario, the principal problems in the establishment of a
welfare state is not only rarity of political will but its administration is also dependent on factors like defining the desirable level of provision of services by the state; ensuring that the system meets the needs of target population while guaranteeing adeptness in the operation of state monopolies and bureaucracies; and the equitable provision of resources to finance the services.
Perhaps he does know what becoming a
welfare state entails.
In this connection, providing free or subsidized education and healthcare could be a common
welfare state goal.
It added that the prospects for later generations are uncertain, with bigger long-term questions about how the
welfare state is maintained.