A Truly European Type of Disability Struggle: Disability Policy in Denmark and the EU in the 1990s

Abstract

Can one speak of a special European type of disability struggle? Today, European societies are characterised by corporatist structures. Boards and committees on which unions and employers organisations are represented are very powerful. This has become a model for other interest groups. In Denmark, a national organisation of disabled people quickly gained considerable political influence and later developed a corporatist structure. Denmark is considered to exemplify a genuinely European model which enables people with disabilities to influence policy and participate in society. The institutions that have been established (e.g. the Central Disability Council and the Centre of Equal Treatment) are an attempt to translate the ‘Social Model of Disability’ into social structures. Today, American influence has created pressure in Europe to enact equal rights legislation: the American way of empowering disabled people. Although equal rights legislation may be useful, it is argued that corporatist structures have the potential to achieve a much broader and deeper influence that can penetrate into all sectors of society.