Este estudo trata das consequências da adoção do regime neoliberal. O Neoliberalismo é responsável por uma ausência de atuação, ou atuação negativa do Estado frente à área social, pois este corrobora com a manutenção da pobreza, interessante ao sistema capitalista. Desse modo, investimentos em saúde, educação e assistência social toram-se escassos, fazendo com que o acesso a um Estado de Bem Estar Social seja uma realidade distante. O papel do Estado mantém-se focado no emprego do capital público em -segurança?, destinada a conter os desvios de conduta dos marginalizados pelo sistema. Assim, o Estado de Bem Estar Social se enfraquece, na medida em que o Estado Penal se fortifica. Esta relação construída pelo sistema neoliberal, muitas vezes, desrespeita o estipulado nas constituições democráticas, como as garantias e direitos fundamentais. Ainda, ressalta-se, que este sistema encontra-se consolidado em uma política desencontrada da moral, que persuade e aliena a população, através de qualquer meio que se digne a distorcer e maquiar informações. Percebe-se que a instituição política atua com violência, não só no sentido físico (vide a atuação policial), mas também no sentido psicológico dos cidadãos. Todo este cenário, então, remete à reflexão acerca da utilidade do sistema carcerário, para além de sua utilização no sistema judiciário. / This study deals with the consequences of adopting the neoliberal regime. Neoliberalism is responsible for an absence of action, or negative action of the State against the social area, as this corroborates with the maintenance of poverty, interesting to the capitalist system. In this way, investments in health, education and social assistance have become scarce, making access to a welfare state a distant reality. The role of the state remains focused on the use of public capital in \"security\", designed to contain the misconduct of those marginalized by the system. Thus, the Welfare State weakens, as the Penal State becomes stronger. This relationship built by the neoliberal system often disrespects what is stipulated in democratic constitutions, such as fundamental rights and guarantees. Still, it is emphasized that this system is consolidated in a policy disregarded of the moral that persuades and alienates the population, through any means that deign to distort and make up information. It is perceived that the political institution acts with violence, not only in the physical sense (see the police action), but also in the psychological sense of the citizens. This whole scenario, then, refers to the reflection on the utility of the prison system, in addition to its use in the judicial system.

This paper investigates whether privatisation of welfare services increases the Swedish middle classes’ support for the welfare state. This study is situated within an adaptation of the Paradox of Redistribution, according to which privatisation may be a way of accommodating the interests of an increasingly individualistic and autonomous middle class. The support of the middle classes is thought to be crucial, as it provides the resources necessary to maintain a comprehensive welfare state. A survey experiment is used in order to examine the causal link between specific information stimuli regarding to what degree specific welfare services are provided by private actors, and survey respondents’ personal willingness to pay taxes for specific welfare services. The use of information stimuli follows from an assumption of ill-informed respondents. The willingness to pay for specific welfare services serve as a micro-level indicator of welfare state support, with a macro-level indicator serving as a complement. Key evidence is found in the micro-level case of social services, and the overall results are taken to give support for the hypothesis. The paper provides important insights into how Swedish policy makers could reason with regards to the design of welfare services, if they are interested in securing the financing, and in turn, the longevity of a comprehensive welfare state.

The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to private insurance in the United States and public insurance in the United Kingdom. Of course, this paper has implications for several areas of scholarship, as well as for current policy debates on a wide range of issues.

一九九0年代的台灣，社會福利政策突然成了輿論的焦點。儘管政府、學術界或社會團體，對如何規劃台灣的社會福利藍圖，有不同的看法，但對於加強福利保障此一發展目標，則有普遍的共識。身為福利發展的後進國，西方福利國家的發展經驗值得我們借鏡；而往後福利政策的計劃與實施，更必需面對四十年來威權體制下的福利發展歷史，及所遺留下來的種種問題。 　　本論文研究一九四九年到一九九0年間，台灣地區威權體制下的福利政策。就如所有社會科學的研究一般，除了資料的蒐集外，作者如何表達、呈現出問題的意義，往往決定了一篇論文的面貌。筆者基本上認為，要了解某一政策的產出，必需將其放在國家機關與民間社會的關係脈絡中分析。這種關係在相當程度上，是受國內外政經結構的變化所制約的；而且，政策並非獨立地存在。無論是在決策或實踐階段，不同政策間往往存在若干有機的聯結，彼此互相競合及影響。因此，本文的研究步驟，首先是分析威權體制下，國家機關與民間社會的特殊關係；接著將焦點放在福利政策與政治、經濟、社會政策問的關聯方面。希望藉由此種方式，了解在威權體制下福利政策的意義。 　　在內容方面，本論文共分七章：第一章論述威權體制的分析途徑、關於福利國家發展的研究成果，以及本論文的架構；第二章對台灣社會福利的現況作重點式的整理，也是對威權體制下福利發展結果的概述，第三、四、五、六章分別分析軍公教人員、勞工、農民與弱勢群體的福利政策；第七章結論部份，則是整合前述各章節，對四十餘年來台灣的福利發展，作一總體性的分析。

<p>Mellan år 1984-2000 ökade andelen aktieägare bland Sveriges befolkning markant, från 29 till 80 %, för att mellan år 2000 och 2008 ligga stabilt runt 80 %. Då allt fler får sin inkomst från kapital och inte endast från arbete borde detta leda till nya normativa föreställningar kring välfärdsstatens utformning och finansiering. Studien jämför kvantitativa studier kring utbredningen av aktieägandet och attityder till välfärdsstatens institutioner och premisser mellan åren 1984-2008. Med aktieägande avses en inkluderande definition av både direkt ägande av enskilda aktieposter samt innehav av fondandelar, såsom pensionsfonder. Studiens primära hypotes är att ökat aktieägande leder till mer negativa attityder till välfärdsstaten. Därtill antas fusket inom välfärdssektorerna öka samt misstänksamheten om fusk tillta medan klasskillnader inom åsikter rörande välfärdsstaten förväntas minska. Centrala teoretiska utgångspunkter är reciprocitet, moralisk ekonomi, historisk institutionalism och spårberoende. Det alltmer utbredda aktieägande liknas vid processer i riktning mot ett massinvesteringssamhälle där vardagen tenderar att finansialiseras alltmer. Studiens resultat ger inget stöd för hypoteserna. Stödet för välfärdsstaten verkar inte ha förändrats nämnvärt under undersökningsperioden. Inte heller verkar klasskillnaderna i åsikter kring välfärdsstaten, fusket inom välfärdssektorerna samt misstänksamheten om fuskets utbreddhet ha förändrats nämnvärt. Dessa resultat beror troligen på flera orsaker. Bland annat tenderar aktieägandet att vara mycket ojämnt fördelat bland Sveriges befolkning.</p> / <p>Between the years 1984-2000 it became increasingly common to own stocks in Sweden. Among the whole population stock ownership increased from 29 to 80 % until year 2000, and was thereafter around 80 % until present day, 2008. As more people receive disposable income not only from labour, but also from capital, their attitudes regarding how the welfare state should be financed and organized, should change. Stock ownership here includes both traditional private stocks and also savings in stock funds. The paper’s main hypothesis is that increased stock ownership will have a negative impact on attitudes towards the welfare state. Also cheating in the welfare sectors and the suspicion about others cheating is believed to increase while class differences concerning attitudes towards the welfare state are believed to diminish. Central theoretical themes are reciprocity, moral economy, historical institutionalism and path dependency. The increased stock ownership is described as a process in the direction towards a mass investment society, where everyday life tends to become financialized to a growing extent. The results show no support for the hypotheses. Attitudes and opinions concerning the welfare state seem to be stable during the whole time period. Neither seems there to be any significant sign of diminishing class differences regarding attitudes towards the welfare state, nor any growing suspicion concerning cheating within the welfare sectors nor any actual growth of cheating. These results might depend on a number of reasons. For one, stock ownership seems to a large extent be unequally distributed among the population of Sweden.</p>

This thesis attempts to extend the historical scope of divorce research in Sweden by providing an analysis ofhow the variations in the divorce rate over time and across geographical areas are connected to the economic, normative and institutional restructuring of Swedish society during the period 1915-1974. The thesis finds that the economic reshaping of Sweden into a modern market economy is at the center of the process that has resulted in decreased marital stability during the twentieth century. The shift from a single- to a dual-provider model and an increased integration of both men and women into market processes outside the family have resulted in lowered economic interdependence between spouses, which in turn has decreased the economic constraints to divorce. This conclusion is supported by the empirical finding that indicators of female economic self-sufficiency are associated with increased propensities for divorce, during the entire period under research in this thesis. That changes in the constraints experienced by women have been important is further emphasized by the finding that women have been more prone than men to initiate divorce, and that this gendered pattern of divorce was established already during the early twentieth century in Sweden.The results further indicate that the growth of divorce is connected not only to a shift in the provider model but also to the way sustained economic growth has resulted in a general increase in the resources available to individuals, as proposed by the socio-economic growth hypothesis. During the 1920s and 1930s, high-strata groups, such as lawyers, journalists, engineers and military officers, exhibited a divorce rate on the same level as in the general population of Sweden today. By the early 1960s, however, this positive associa- tion between social class and divorce had changed: by then it was rather couples in working-class occupations who exhibited the highest probability of divorce, which is a pattern that appears to have persisted since then. These findings indicate that a general increase and more even distribution of economic resources betweenboth genders and social classes have facilitated individuals’ possibilities to sustain themselves independent of family ties. This democratization in the access to divorce has meant that growing segments of the populationhave gained the means to act on a demand for divorce.However, another result of the thesis is that it is not possible to limit the analysis to a strictly economic perspective. Rather, economic changes have interacted with and been reinforced by changes in values, as wellas in institutions, during the periods when widespread and rapid behavioral change has occurred. In Sweden, like in most other Western countries, this was primarily the case during the 1940s and a period covering approximately the second half of the 1960s and first half of the 1970s. The studies of the thesis suggest that these two periods of rapid growth in the divorce rate stand out as periods in Swedish history when attitudes also changed more rapidly toward values that can be regarded as permissive, secular and more open to indi- vidual freedom of choice. Trenchantly, these two periods also correspond to the two harvest periods in Social Democratic welfare state policy. In the thesis it is argued that the marked increase in government services and social security at these time points integrated with and reinforced economic restructuring in a way that worked to “de-familializate” individuals by making them less dependent on family ties for social security. Institutional changes of this type have been particularly important for making single life more feasible for women and low- income groups. In the thesis, it is argued that the timings of substantial behavioral change become difficult to understand if the analytical perspective does not explicitly incorporate how such contextual-level changes in values and institutions have integrated with changes in the provider model and the economy during thesedynamic periods of the divorce transition in Sweden.

In 1991, the Swedish Social Democratic government established the Pensioners’ Council at the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Council’s purpose and structure were spelled out by the Government in a Commission of Inquiry Directive. According to this, the Council is to be a forum for deliberations between the Government and pensioners’ organizations. At the municipal level, Senior Citizens Councils have existed since the 1970s. They fill a similar purpose to that of the Pensioners’ Council at the central level, namely to be an arena for political discussions between representatives from pensioners’ organizations and the municipality. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, I describe the influence of pensioners’ organizations on the establishment of the pensioners’ councils and their political influence – potential as well as actual – in these councils. Second, I seek to explain the influence of pensioners’ organizations from a power resources perspective. By doing so, I hope to contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between the welfare state and organized interests. Does this relationship imply the existence of a corporatist or pluralistic power structure? Finally, I also hope to contribute to our understanding of the future development of the welfare state in the light of a global economy and aging population. The empirical investigation on the central level suggests that pensioners’ organizations influenced the decision to establish the Pensioners’ Council. Moreover, they had actual as well as potential political influence through the council since the early 1990s. There success in influencing government policy is due to the fact that pensioners’ organizations represent an important voting group and their employees have expert knowledge. At the local level, the empirical investigation suggests that pensioners’ organizations had influence on decisions made by municipalities to establish Senior Citizens Councils. However, opportunities to influence vary at the local level, and pensioners’ organizations actual political influence is limited. This limited influence can be explained as a consequence of pensioners’ organizations lack of an important power resource at the local level – employed expertise. It is argued in the dissertation that the empirical results do not suggest an existence of a corporatist power structure in social issues. Rather, they point to a pluralistic power structure – i.e. along side producer organizations, other organizations (such as those for welfare consumers) also have an important power position. This, in turn, limits the ability of politicians to cut welfare spending. The case of pensioners’ organizations therefore suggests that we cannot expect any drastic downsizing of the Swedish welfare state due to factors such as the globalization of the economy. In light of the aging population, the empirical results suggest that politicians will have to seek other solutions to be able to meet the challenge of financing welfare programs targeting the elderly than making drastic cutbacks in those programs.

Mellan år 1984-2000 ökade andelen aktieägare bland Sveriges befolkning markant, från 29 till 80 %, för att mellan år 2000 och 2008 ligga stabilt runt 80 %. Då allt fler får sin inkomst från kapital och inte endast från arbete borde detta leda till nya normativa föreställningar kring välfärdsstatens utformning och finansiering. Studien jämför kvantitativa studier kring utbredningen av aktieägandet och attityder till välfärdsstatens institutioner och premisser mellan åren 1984-2008. Med aktieägande avses en inkluderande definition av både direkt ägande av enskilda aktieposter samt innehav av fondandelar, såsom pensionsfonder. Studiens primära hypotes är att ökat aktieägande leder till mer negativa attityder till välfärdsstaten. Därtill antas fusket inom välfärdssektorerna öka samt misstänksamheten om fusk tillta medan klasskillnader inom åsikter rörande välfärdsstaten förväntas minska. Centrala teoretiska utgångspunkter är reciprocitet, moralisk ekonomi, historisk institutionalism och spårberoende. Det alltmer utbredda aktieägande liknas vid processer i riktning mot ett massinvesteringssamhälle där vardagen tenderar att finansialiseras alltmer. Studiens resultat ger inget stöd för hypoteserna. Stödet för välfärdsstaten verkar inte ha förändrats nämnvärt under undersökningsperioden. Inte heller verkar klasskillnaderna i åsikter kring välfärdsstaten, fusket inom välfärdssektorerna samt misstänksamheten om fuskets utbreddhet ha förändrats nämnvärt. Dessa resultat beror troligen på flera orsaker. Bland annat tenderar aktieägandet att vara mycket ojämnt fördelat bland Sveriges befolkning. / Between the years 1984-2000 it became increasingly common to own stocks in Sweden. Among the whole population stock ownership increased from 29 to 80 % until year 2000, and was thereafter around 80 % until present day, 2008. As more people receive disposable income not only from labour, but also from capital, their attitudes regarding how the welfare state should be financed and organized, should change. Stock ownership here includes both traditional private stocks and also savings in stock funds. The paper’s main hypothesis is that increased stock ownership will have a negative impact on attitudes towards the welfare state. Also cheating in the welfare sectors and the suspicion about others cheating is believed to increase while class differences concerning attitudes towards the welfare state are believed to diminish. Central theoretical themes are reciprocity, moral economy, historical institutionalism and path dependency. The increased stock ownership is described as a process in the direction towards a mass investment society, where everyday life tends to become financialized to a growing extent. The results show no support for the hypotheses. Attitudes and opinions concerning the welfare state seem to be stable during the whole time period. Neither seems there to be any significant sign of diminishing class differences regarding attitudes towards the welfare state, nor any growing suspicion concerning cheating within the welfare sectors nor any actual growth of cheating. These results might depend on a number of reasons. For one, stock ownership seems to a large extent be unequally distributed among the population of Sweden.

In the context of the Swedish welfare state, the issue of child poverty has over the past decade become increasingly prominent within the political agenda. Most research on child poverty has been based on statistics and research on children’s everyday life and their experiences in situations of economic hardship has been in demand in international as well as Swedish research. The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyze children’s experiences of living within economic hardship as part of their identity work. In addition, it highlights how their agency can be understood as a way of dealing with their situation, as well as how child poverty – and the child position in a welfare state setting -  is understood and conceptualized by the society they live in.  The analysis was based on an interview study involving seventeen children between the ages of 6–18 in families living on or below the limit for receiving welfare benefits. The purpose of the interviews was to explore how these children experience economic hardship at home and among same-aged children, focusing their own strategies and agency. The thesis uses the field of childhood sociology as a theoretical starting point, and the empirical findings are analyzed with an interactionist approach which highlights the meaning of interaction and agency in relation to identity work. The strategies deployed by the children in this study was interpreted in the context of the limited space for agency that the child position entails as well as how their positioning as children, by themselves and others, creates a new understanding of the way poverty is managed by them. This thesis seeks to problematize the issue of child poverty in Sweden by stressing its complexities.  The thesis also emphasizes that it would be a simplification to label these children as merely stigmatized since the status of poverty as a stigma for children can be questioned.

The ways of organizing political problem solving in society are not static. A pluralistic dynamic society requires a continious reconsideration and adaption of its political in­stitutions, i.e. political institutionalization. Institutiona­lization demands prior organizing activities among actors for political aims. Organizing activities can be seen both inter­nally, externally or between existing organisations and in­stitutions . The degree of institutionalization reflects the organizing activities' survival capacity. The higher the degree of in­stitutionalization the more likely it is that the organizing activity will become a formally based organisation or institu­tion, or will change the dominating values of organisations or institutions. The degree of institutionalization is discussed using the concepts of adaptability, complexity, autonomy and flexibility. The thesis represents a problem-oriented implementation approach where individuals' joint ways of organizing problem- solving are the basis for analysis of both policy-realization and political institutionalization. Policy is defined as ideas and the ways of creating institutional arrangements in order to realize them. A "policy-problem", defined as the empirical question answered by examining the process of institutionali­zation, is used to study the policy-processes in the field of occupational safety and health. The ways in which individuals collectively organize in order to create a good working environment are studied using the concept of implementation structures. These are defined as phenomenological administrative units of analysis, i.e. groups of individuals empirically judged to take part in solving the policy problem. / digitalisering@umu