福利社会与发展中的斯堪的纳维亚福利国家

欧洲各国致力于福利国家的建设已逾百年,经历了两次世界大战.各国在社会投入水平和福利机构方面的巨大差异至今仍在,但是各国对于福利社会的可持续性的认可和公众对福利社会的高度承诺则是基本一致的.各福利社会有来自各方面的维系:中央政府或地方政府、公司企业、家庭和自发组织的机构.不同的福利社会体系与它们之间的关系长期以来对欧洲各福利国家有着不同的意义,形成了具有不同特点的福利制度.在20世纪最后十年里重建福利国家的痛苦过程中,经济增长和社会发展之间的关系一直是整个斯堪的纳维亚地区社会问题的争论热点.然而到目前为止,效率与平等之间的冲突大多得到了解决,在北欧五国都保持了福利政策的稳定.该地区独特的历史经验并不排斥发展中国家的政府和机构为了发展福利事业而积极推行普及政策所做出的努力.

The Concept of the Welfare State and the Developmental Welfare State in Scandinavia

European national welfare states have been built over a period of more than 100 years,and institutions have survived two world wars.They are remarkably important to their citizens of today.Great differences between national welfare states in terms of social expenditure levels and institutional structures persist,but everywhere it seems that the sustainability of the welfare state,a high public commitment to welfare,is given a high priority among voters,a fact which sets European voters apart from voters in other parts of the Western world(Flora,1993;Ferrera,1993).In all societies,welfare is provided by a mixture of providers: the state(central and/or local government);firms(based on market demand or welfare for own employees);households/families;and voluntary organizations.These providers-and interrelationships between them-have varying importance over time and across European countries,and a distinction between different types of welfare states or "welfare regimes" is made in the literature(e.g.Esping-Andersen,1990).In this article focus is on one of these types of welfare states,"the Scandinavian welfare model",which is characterized in a number of ways,one of these being that the state and the public sector have overall importance for welfare.