Being traditionally a correcting and repairing practice, anchored in the modernistic visions of the European welfare states, rehabilitation is today subject to substantial revisions. The concept and practices of rehabilitation are under pressure from multiple directions. Traditional rehabilitation is challenged from above by way of pressure from political institutions demanding more and better rehabilitation services with less resources. It is challenged from inside where an increasing number of professions fight each other for a (fair) share of the increasing rehabilitation market It is challenged from outside where its orderly modernistic vision is met by disorderliness and diversity, and from below, by a growing and stronger disability movement eager to free itself from the chains of oppressing categories and labels imposed by paternalistic professionals. As a respond to this, the purpose and goals of rehabilitation is substantially extended to include also societal participation and equal opportunities for disabled people. The question asked in this paper is whether the concept of rehabilitation will survive the challenges and shift in perspective that we are now witnessing?

This article analyses the introduction of Norwegian local government social security programs for the elderly, disabled persons, widows and single mothers in the 1920s. The role of local government as an agent and initiator of welfare state development has been for the most part neglected within the welfare state literature. Indeed, the first social security programs in Norway were introduced by local governments, affecting nearly half of the population. Even if these programs were not very generous compared with the social security programs of our time, many of them were equal to, or even more generous than, the national pension scheme introduced in 1936. This article examines what distinguished the social security municipalities from those that did not implement such programs, and the variation in generosity profiles. The conclusion is that the main determinant regarding the implementation and generosity of the local social security programs is the political strength of the two Norwegian socialist parties at the time – the Social democratic party and the Labour party – both being too impatient to wait for a national social security plan, and both being willing to mobilise economic resources through taxation and borrowing.

At the dawn of the 21'th century, rehabilitation, both as a concept and as practice, are under debate. Traditionally, rehabilitation is seen as primarily a health issue, based on the idea that persons who are ill -physically or mentally -or have an impairment of some kind -is in need of treatment and training which allows them to regain functionality and to re-enter their lost positions in the work-force and in society. Hence, rehabilitation has focussed on bodily function and repair.Today, this traditional view of rehabilitation is challenged. The goal and purpose of rehabilitation has gradually shifted from bodily functioning and correction in itself, to a stronger emphasis on participation, self-determination and equal opportunity. One of the recommendations from a global conference "Rethinking care" arranged by the World Health Organisation in 2001, was that "...the primary goal of rehabilitation programs must be the equalization of opportunities for all disadvantaged people."

This article compares the income distribution among disabled and nondisabled persons in Norway. Based on the level of living surveys covering the period from 1980 to 1995, the analysis shows a large and increasing income gap between the two groups. The disabled are losing ground to the non-disabled part of the population, however this is most pronounced over the age of 40, while there are only minor differences between disabled and non-disabled people under 40. Three different explanations for this pattern are discussed; one pointing at differences in ageing processes within the two groups, one at cohort characteristics and the third relating the increasing differences to period characteristics. We argue that the observed income differences are mostly due to period characteristics, indicating strong and increasing exclusion prosesses of disabled persons from the labour market We also argue that focus should be on structural characteristics rather than on individual properties to understand and improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities.

The two conservative parties in Norway, the old Conservative Party and the younger Progressive Party increased their electoral support from 23 percent in 1975 to 34 percent in the election of 1987. The electoral mobilization by these conservative parties was mainly based on an ideologically inspired rhetoric of reduced government spending and corresponding tax reductions. With the benefit of hindsight, it may be argued that these were policies to which the two parties did not live up. Whatever their political strength in the local arena, they were unable to reduce local government income taxes. But when analysing other fiscal strategies available to local governments we do find differences related to political strength, even if the findings are not always as expected. Municipalities dominated by the conservatives are run on the principle of families paying the actual costs of having children in public day‐care institutions. But so are socialist‐dominated municipalities. Conservative and socialist municipalities tend to subsidize fees for home‐help services for the elderly. The main fiscal source of the conservatives is fees and charges on technical services used by every household and paid according to costs. The watershed between socialist and conservative parties appears as we analyse the use of property tax ‐ a tax used much more frequently by socialist than by conservative and centrist parties.