Welfare State Changes and Outcomes – The Cases of Portugal and Denmark from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

It is well known that welfare states ensure a certain level of social protection affecting levels of well-being and the extent of inequalities in society. Changes within crucial domains of social policy, such as education, health, or social protection, have, therefore, a major effect upon individuals' opportunities. In this article I compare the effects of these changes in two countries from the mid-1980s to the financial crisis of 2008. Portugal that was a latecomer in welfare state development and Denmark was at the forefront of de-commodification and universalization of social rights. The conclusion of this article is that income inequality has been steadily increasing in Danish society; while in Portugal, despite improvements in many social domains (healthcare, poverty alleviation, unemployment protection), problems of inequality remain deeply embedded in the country's social and institutional structures.

Poles Apart? A Comparative Study of Housing Policies and Outcomes in Portugal and Denmark

“…On the one hand, these two countries lie at extremes of a spectrum of welfare regimes which had different starting points, and have had different trajectories and levels of welfare development over time (Alves 2015).…”

“…universal and de-commodified, providing high standards of welfare for all (Alves 2015, 4), Portugal adheres to a Mediterranean regime characterized by rudimentary and ramified state intervention (Alves 2015). In regard to housing, whilst the Danish housing system evinces a more proportional balance among housing tenures, not only between rental and ownership but also between profit and non-profit forms of rental housing, in Portugal owner-occupancy is by far the dominant tenure (Alves and Andersen 2015).…”

“…Whilst including other Mediterranean EU countries, the pioneering work of Allen et al (2004) only marginally considered the Portuguese case. In addition, comparative work by Hansen and Silva (2000) and, more recently, Alves (2015) on the Portuguese and Danish welfare systems, and patterns of social and economic change from the mid 1980s until the financial crisis of 2008, have totally neglected housing as a social field of analysis. As pointed out by Oxley and Haffner (2012, 201), like other southern European countries, Portugal "has been the subject of relatively few studies" of comparative housing research, which justifies the significance of the present contribution.…”

“…An expressive example of this are the five Nordic countries which, whilst belonging to the social democratic regime, that is, characterized by high levels of de-commodification 1 and well-funded welfare benefits and social services (Alves 2015), and an ideology that supports a good supply of housing for all social groups, have nevertheless developed various structures of housing provision, in terms of institutions involved in the provision of particular forms of housing, or instruments and measures chosen to achieve their goals 2 (Bengtsson and Ruonavaara 2011). As a consequence, as Kemeny (2006) points out, the Nordic countries do not comprise a uniform category as regards rental housing: "in terms of the two-fold rental housing systems outlined above, Sweden and Denmark have integrated rental markets, whereas Finland and Norway have dualist rental systems" (idem: 6).…”

“…These differences have been explained on the basis of path-dependency theories, which claim that earlier policy decisions (in terms of policies or institutional arrangements) set welfare states on distinct policy trajectories that are afterwards difficult to reverse 1 'De-commodification' refers to the extent to which a regime promotes an acceptable standard of living independently of market participation, therefore without reliance upon income earned in the market sphere (Alves, 2015). 2 For example, whereas housing policies in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway can be characterized as universal (i.e.…”