Nordic welfare states are known for their universalistic and all‐encompassing approach to welfare and having a long tradition for active labour market policy as tool in economic crises with adverse impact on employment. They have had a long tradition for strong egalitarian approaches and their residents are consistently among the happiest in the world. A key issue is whether a crisis like the COVID‐19 outbreak is changing the Nordic welfare states. This article focuses on providing a description of what instruments the Nordic countries have taken or expect to use as part of dealing with the welfare challenges resulting from rising unemployment and greater social and economic insecurity in the wake of the crisis. The tentative conclusion is that the crisis so far has strengthened key characteristics of the Nordic welfare states by the state taking on a strong central role not only for the functioning of the market but also continued in a path‐dependent way with universal and relatively generous benefits such as for those who become unemployed or have reduced income because of the crisis.

The Nordic welfare model is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Using Denmark we show how a universal welfare state model is gradually being transformed into an emergent multi-tiered welfare state. Whereas the Danish pension system's having become multi-tiered in the 1990s, with private schemes -collective and individual -supplementing public schemes is well documented, scant attention has focused on more recent developments in other areas of the welfare state. This article shows how the multi-tiered welfare state spread in the 2000s to policies for families, the unemployed and the sick. Although Denmark still offers universal coverage in core welfare state areas, the increased use of occupational and fiscal welfare as well as changes in public schemes has gradually transformed the nation into a multi-tiered welfare state that is more dualistic and individualistic, with participation in the labour market becoming still more important for entitlement to benefits. These profound changes have taken place in such a way that although core characteristics are still in place, new structures and understandings of the welfare state are also developing. Thus classical typologies need revision, so that they include more focus on this combination of universality and institutional attachment to the labour market. Moreover, measures of what welfare comprises should include not only public but also private elements.

This article presents the main distinctive characteristics of the Nordic welfare states. These include, for example, full employment, high degree of equality, a high level of taxes and a high level of public spending on welfare. The article further presents data, which enables the reader to a comparison with welfare states in Europe and to analyse whether we are witnessing convergence in Europe and/or the withering away of the Nordic Model. The conclusion being that the Nordic Model is here to stay, although a movement in a European direction is underway

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This paper explores the extent to which, and the ways in which, it m&ht be justaaed in talking of a movement towards convergence of social policy within Europe. It reviews dq5nitions and ppologies ofthe werare state as a prelude to discussion ofthe dfferent theoretical types and possibilities of social policy integration, which h e r leads into consideration of supranational EU developments. The empirical data presented in respect of "social protection" expenditures (and taxation regimes) in general and of "active" and 'yassive" labour market expenditures in particular, lend support to the notion not mereg that the werare state is notyet over in Europe, but that forms ofsocialpolicy convergence are in evidence already.