TY - JOUR
T1 - How New Economic Ideas Changed the Danish Welfare State
T2 - The Case of Neoliberal Ideas and Highly Organized Social Democratic Interests
AU - Larsen, Christian Albrekt
AU - Andersen, Jørgen Goul
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The article argues that new economic ideas have exerted an independent causal effect on policy change in three major areas in the Danish welfare state; unemployment insurance, early retirement and taxation. Thereby the Danish case bears resemblance to the paradigmatic shift from Keynesianism to monetarism in the UK. However, in the Danish case this paradigmatic shift did not coincide with a political shift to a right-wing government. This makes it possible to disentangle the intimate relationship between ideas and interests. It is argued that the Danish case provides one of the clearest examples of the independent causal effects of economic ideas because the Social Democrats pursued policies that compromised with the party's historically rooted positions and with the preferences of their electorate. Ideas and solutions did not come in one fixed package, however. But the new paradigm established some basic premises that were not up for discussion.
AB - The article argues that new economic ideas have exerted an independent causal effect on policy change in three major areas in the Danish welfare state; unemployment insurance, early retirement and taxation. Thereby the Danish case bears resemblance to the paradigmatic shift from Keynesianism to monetarism in the UK. However, in the Danish case this paradigmatic shift did not coincide with a political shift to a right-wing government. This makes it possible to disentangle the intimate relationship between ideas and interests. It is argued that the Danish case provides one of the clearest examples of the independent causal effects of economic ideas because the Social Democrats pursued policies that compromised with the party's historically rooted positions and with the preferences of their electorate. Ideas and solutions did not come in one fixed package, however. But the new paradigm established some basic premises that were not up for discussion.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01434.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01434.x
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0952-1895
VL - 22
SP - 239
EP - 261
JO - Governance. An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions
JF - Governance. An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions
IS - 2
ER -