The Nordic Welfare State Model

The Nordic welfare state is usually referred to as the most successful model of its kind; this social system based on the principle of universalism is a common ideal for other European states. The goal of the diploma thesis The Nordic Welfare State Model is to introduce this social model, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. The description of theoretic models as well as the history of European welfare states are vital in order to understand the functioning of social systems; however the main purpose of this paper is to characterize the Nordic welfare state model through the examples of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and to capture the main commonalities and disparities in comparison with the rest of Europe. Based on up-to-date analyses of mainly Scandinavian researchers as well as reports of international organizations this paper offers an extensive analysis of the Nordic Welfare State Model