Class, individualism and the Finnish welfare state

Abstract

What happens to the legitimacy of the Scandinavian model of the welfare state within the context of post-industrial development and the growth of the middle classes? Theoretically, two rival hypotheses can be posed. According to the saturation approach, the legitimation of the welfare state collapses. As general welfare increases, people adopt more individualistic stances toward the welfare state. By contrast, the irreversibility theory of the welfare state suggests that the legitimacy of the welfare state even improves as more people are employed by the welfare state and as all citizens are covered by its services. These hypotheses are tested empirically by using recent Finnish opinion survey data and by employing structural equation methods. At least in Finland, the irreversibility approach clearly gets more support than the rival saturation hypothesis. The results show that the middle classes are neither overly individualist nor critical of the Finnish welfare state.