The Universal Decline of Universality? Social Policy Change in Canada, Denmark, Sweden and the UK

Abstract

The debate about the future of universal social programmes has been raging for years, both in social-democratic and in liberal welfare states. The objective of this article is to contribute to the literature on universality by analyzing the evolution of universal social programmes in two social-democratic and two liberal countries: Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the UK. This choice of countries provides the opportunity to investigate whether the principle and practice of universality has fared differently both within and between countries. The analysis focuses primarily on the national level while exploring three policy areas: pensions, healthcare and family policy, specifically child benefits and day care. The main conclusion of our comparative analysis is clear: among our two liberal and two social-democratic countries, the institutional strength of universality varies greatly from one policy area and one country to another. Considering this, there is no such a thing as a universal decline of universality.

Social Citizenship, Social Policy and Refugee Integration: a Case of Policy Divergence in Scotland?

“…While much of this divergence is due to Westminster moving away from the post-1945 welfare consensus (Béland and Lecours, 2008;Keating, 2009) the on-going importance of the principle of universalism in Scotland is also evident and largely extends to various migrant populations. Divergence has occurred both formally, in terms of what competencies are devolved, and informally in the form of venue shift, particularly regarding access to the welfare state.…”

“…For Béland and Lecours (2008) divergence from the post-1945 welfare state consensus on the part of successive UK Governments has created a difference between Scottish and UK Governments' philosophies of welfare. They highlight the post-1945 consensus as a key factor in the creation of British identity and that the breakdown of this consensus contributed to divergence between Holyrood and Westminster.…”

“…Access to social citizenship? Scottish government policy on refugee integration Keating (2009) and Béland and Lecours (2008) point to the broad resilience of universalism in Scottish social policy, in contrast to the movement towards selective support and rights stratification in Westminster. In essence the devolved settlement means that issues around those rights that are not specifically reserved in the Scotland Acts effectively become devolved.…”

Nordic eldercare – Weak universalism becoming weaker?

“…As Anttonen puts it: universalism 'names the redistributive principle behind social policy ' (2002: 71). Nested under this broadest of principles, a range of dimensions of universalism have been identified, the specification and relevance of which varies with policy area (Anttonen et al 2012;Béland et al, 2014;Goul Andersen, 2012;Kröger et al, 2003;Moberg, 2016). Drawing on this prior research, particularly from Anttonen (2002), Goul Andersen 3 (2012) and Vabø and Szebehely (2012), we have identified the following dimensions as ideal-typical for universal eldercare.…”

Path dependency and convergence of three worlds of welfare policy during the Great Recession: UK, Germany and Sweden

“…These countries have been the object of intensive scrutiny on a variety of topics (e.g. Béland et al 2014;Kammer 2012;Oesch 2006;Pontusson & Raess 2012;Thelen 2014) as they have often been taken to approximate the ideal typical welfare state regimes as defined by Esping-Andersen (1990; cf. Emmenegger et al 2015): conservative, social democratic and liberal, respectively.…”