Skiftende forestillinger om velfærdsstatens kriser

This article analyses the changing conceptions of welfare state crisis. Various crisis conceptions are described and discussed according to their analysis of crisis and the theoretical and political observation of the authors. We find that the welfare state has always been perceived as being in crisis, but that types of crisis disappear and change over time. From the 1960s through the 1980s the welfare state was portrayed as the main cause of problems for the systems of the market and the family. Since the early 1990s it has mostly been the other way around. Globalisation, new family forms and post-industrial labour markets put new demands on the welfare state. Crisis conceptions thus show a tendency to disappear over time, change their nature, and to have moved from being primarily endogenous to the welfare state to become mainly exogenous. In tandem the concept of crisis have been replaced by the less deterministic concept of welfare state challenges. The Nordic welfare model seem particularly well suited to meet the current challenges, and this conclusion gives ground to believe that it will survive well into the 21st century.