福祉モデルの変遷 : フィンランドの事例研究と福祉モデルの理論的考察

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The developments of welfare model in various societies can better be understood through discussions with comparative perspectives as well as through case studies on respective societies. Distinctive features with a specific welfare model can better be addressed by analysing the achievements of politics and policies through links between policy preferences and civic trust on politics and policies. In Finland the crisis of welfare state was closely related to the modification of trajectory in the development and expansion of welfare state throughout the 1980s, mainly because there occurred economic recession and massive unemployment in the early 1990s. At the same time, the international community surrounding Finnish society also changed drastically and the increasing influence of neoliberalist discourse under globalization of economic life underlined the sense of crisis of welfare state in Finland. Furthermore, the administrative reforms in Finland aimed at promotion of decentralization and emphasized the roles of local municipalities and these reforms tend to be misunderstood as reduction and decline of roles and significance of the central government representing the welfare state. The long-run reform of the 1984 system of state subsidiaries and planning reached completion in 1993 when the economic recession was at a peak. Under such a socioeconomic circumstance the reinforced decentralization meant the freedom for local municipalities to decide how to reduce the cost for social services. In Finland since the 1990s the terms of efficiency, competitions and achievements have been referred to not only in relation to the crisis of welfare state or to the welfare state retrenchment but also as key words in explaining how Finnish economy has well adjusted to economic globalization and increased economic competencies mainly through rapid progress in IT industries. On the other hand, Finnish society nowadays is facing a widening of gap between winners and losers, which is in direct contrast with the basic norms of the Nordic welfare model emphasizing equality and justice. Despite the prompt recovery in economic growth in the late 1990s the negative legacies of earlier recession and massive unemployment can be pointed out in the terms of relatively high rate of unemployment. The public opinion used to support the Nordic "universalist" welfare model and from 1995 the Social Democratic Party led the coalition cabinets till 2003. In brief, even though the main indicators regarding economic growth have turned to be positive, the welfare model after the 1990s itself cannot too easily return to the similar path of developments in the 1980s. It is hard to give a consistent interpretation on the meaning of "path dependency" in recent development of the Finnish welfare model, as the degrees of retrenchment and cuts are understood differently.
島根県立大学の論文
2003-08-22

著者

高橋睦子
島根県立大学総合政策学部

福祉モデルの変遷 : フィンランドの事例研究と福祉モデルの理論的考察

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