Globalization, Labour Market and the Swedish Welfare State

As it has been demonstrated, the welfare state plays a very important role in the modern global economy. It is thus interesting to describe the actual European models, what their main features are and what their evolution has been, making a literature review of the argument. The classification of welfare states has always been a discussed topic by the economists, and there are, therefore, different point of views. Titmuss (1974) was the first who differentiated among the “institutional” (typical of Scandinavia), the “industrial achievement” (Central Europe) and the “marginal” (Anglo-Saxon countries) welfare state. In the institutional model, welfare state has a fundamental role, as an integrated institution in society, which provides services and benefits to all citizens on an equal basis following the principle of need. In the industrial achievement-performance model welfare institutions have also a very important role and are part of the economy, but they meet the social needs on the basis of productivity, work performance and merit. In the marginal model, instead, the welfare state has a much smaller role in the country‟s economy, which is basically liberal, and the welfare policies aim to give a minimum coverage.