Nanna Kildal

Justification of workfare: the Norwegian case

During the 1990s the principle of workfarehas dominated welfare reforms in Europe; claimants are increasingly obliged to work in return for their benefits, otherwise they are denied the right to income support. In Norway this strategy is called the ‘work line’, and this article gives a critical account of five arguments used by the Norwegian government to justify it. The discussion focuses on the normative content and empirical assumptions involved in the arguments, and the conclusion is that none of them give good reasons to deny citizens basic opportunity goods. The article gives particular attention to the idea of social justice as reciprocity which is tacitly expressed in the arguments.

New Contractualism in Social Policy and the Norwegian Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion

This article explores some aspects of what has been termed ‘new contractualism’ in social policy, using the Norwegian policy on poverty and social exclusion as an empirical example. An important purpose is to identify how the move to new contractualism implies new modes of controlling behaviour and to explore the ethical legitimacy of this approach. Firstly, contractualism is seen in relation to some dominating discourses in Norwegian and European social policy over the last 20–30 years, emphasizing the importance of economic considerations concerning the financial sustainability of the welfare state. Secondly, the article explores some implications of contractual modes of thought for balancing rights and duties in the welfare state, concluding that the principle of a welfare contract is a euphemism for a polity that basically imposes more obligations on the recipients of welfare services. Thirdly, it elaborates on the tension field between the possible democratic benefits of contractualism and more paternalistic consequences. Although relational contracts may enhance client-influenced service provision, paternal outcomes are likely, owing to the fact that such contracts are often used as instruments for behaviour-changing efforts (e.g. to create an economically active citizen).

Norwegian Welfare Reforms: Social Contracts and Activation Policies

Currently the language of activation and welfare contracts pervades social policy discourses and reforms in Norway, as well in the rest of the Western world. Contracts are used as a new governance tool of activation programmes as well as a moral reminder of the connection between the citizens’ rights and duties. Taken together, activation and contracts are considered to be efficient means to reach vital social policy goals, especially the prioritized goal of moving various client-groups from a ‘passive’ receiver-status to an active working life. Welfare state institutions are, however, not only instrumental means in the making of efficient policies; they also have important normative dimensions, which should be considered when implementing welfare reforms. As Rawls famously expresses it: No matter how efficient and well-arranged laws and institutions are, they ‘must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust’ (1971/1999, p. 3). Accordingly, the society should be a transparent social order where the governing principles are accessible for public consideration, defence or rejection. ‘People should know and understand the reasons for the basic distribution of wealth, power, authority and freedom’ (Waldron, 1993, p. 61).

The Role of International Organizations in Social Policy

Contents: 1. Introduction Rune Ervik, Nanna Kildal and Even Nilssen 2. Comparing Social Policy Ideas Within the EU and the OECD Nanna Kildal 3. Directly-deliberative Polyarchy - A Suitable Democracy Model for European Social Policy? Milena Buchs 4. Combating Social Exclusion in the European Union Even Nilssen 5. Between Policymaking and Application of Law: The European Court of Justice and the Free Movement of Workers Aksel Hatland and Even Nilssen 6. EU and OECD Policy Advice and Changes in National Family Policy: Can Reforms be Attributed to Participation in Learning Processes? Tord Skogedal Linden 7. Policy Actors, Ideas and Power: EU and OECD Pension Policy Recommendations and National Policies Rune Ervik 8. Pension Policy of the International Labour Office Remi Maier-Rigaud 9. Towards a European Convergence in Pension Reform Priorities? Lessons from the OMC in Pensions Axel West Pedersen and Henning Finseraas 10. Health Policy - A Global Dimension? Christof Schiller, Henni Hensen and Stein Kuhnle

Old Age Pensions, Poverty and Dignity Historical Arguments for Universal Pensions

AB STRACT The article refers to studies indicating that universal old age pension programmes alone or in combination with earnings-related schemes are conducive to poverty alleviation and less income inequality. Universalism matters, but few countries in the world have introduced universal old age pension programmes. The article does not research this apparent paradox, but asks the empirical question of whether poverty was a prime concern and reflected in arguments used in favour of universal old age pension when such programmes were introduced historically. What were the pro-arguments? The article looks at the arguments for establishing universal old age pension in three selected countries, all belonging to the group of pioneer countries in this respect: Canada, Mauritius and Norway, which all introduced universal pensions in the 1950s. Historical arguments for universal pension systems in these countries are presented and compared. The ambition to reduce poverty was an important motivation in two of the countries, but the main consideration cutting across all three countries was the moral aversion to means-testing and the desire to achieve fairness and respect to human dignity. Another argument found in all three countries was the pragmatic one that a universal scheme would lead to a reduction of the administrative cost of old age provision compared with a system based on means testing.

The Norwegian welfare state on the threshold of a new century.

A primary function of the welfare state is to protect citizens against social risks. Within the Norwegian (and Scandinavian) ones, this protection has in general been provided in the form of universal social rights to relatively generous benefits. During the last hundred years an increasing number of risks (old age, sickness, unemployment, disabilities etc.) have been recognized as matters of public responsibility. Risks that have not been granted this recognition have been subsumed under residual Social Assistance Acts, i.e. by a means – tested, far less generous social security system. The foundation of welfare policy has been full employment, and when a number of welfare states were stricken by unemployment problems in the 1970s many feared that this basis was crumbling. In 1981 the OECD published a report that should become influential, The Welfare State in Crisis (1). According to the OECD’s analyses of demographic and economic challenges, too generous welfare programmes and too strict regulations of markets had caused oversized, bureaucratic, inefficient, and costly welfare states (2). This diagnosis of the relationship between economic and welfare policies has been repeated over more than 20 years. However, on the threshold of a new century we can ascertain that the financial foundation of the Norwegian welfare state has not been crumbling away. The question remains, though, whether the architecture of this state is in a process of reconstruction. For, even if the OECD’s diagnosis was rather broad and vague regarding concrete symptoms of crises in various welfare states, the fact remains that these experienced more or less serious endogenous and exogenous challenges in the 1980s and early 1990s. The economic recession that hit the Nordic countries during the 1990s did not hit Norway as it has been described in Sweden (2) and Finland (4). The oil economy ensured a steady income for the state and generous welfare benefits could be maintained. But nevertheless, efforts were undertaken to modernize the welfare state, partly as a response to criticism from the OECD, and partly from a more general shifting political ideology.