From Citizenship to Workfare? Changing Labour Market Policies in Denmark since the Oil Crisis

Abstract

Denmark is one of the countries contradicting the idea that European nations are caught by some sort of ‘Eurosclerosis’ immanent in generous welfare systems. Without serious retrenchments and while even improving economic equality, the Danish welfare state has overcome severe economic crises, and full employment has nearly been restored. However, whereas the unusually generous social rights of the unemployed went almost unchallenged by the Conservative governments in the 1980s, the Social Democratic coalition governments since 1993 have adopted quite path-breaking policies of ‘activation’. Whether this strategy is responsible for the ‘employment miracle’, is a contested issue, however, and it is also much debated whether activation should be seen as an improvement or as a deterioration of social rights. This article does not aim at an evaluation but provides an overview of the changing Danish unemployment policies and their underlying philosophies. But first, we take a brief look at the level and structure of unemployment.