ABSTRACT
The welfare state, as it developed in the postwar period, was structured by concepts of formal rationality, bureaucratic dominance, centralized authority and hierarchical control. It was assumed that, when the public realm was responsible for providing a service, it should do so by the employment of its own staff. There was an assumption of uniformity, and planning systems were developed that were intended to ensure universal access to a broadly similar range of services across the country. Premfors’s description of the Swedish model captures that nature of the postwar welfare state:
The big problems of Swedish society, as perceived by the adherents of the model, were seen to require big solutions. Big solutions meant nationwide and uniform social programmes, planned and administered in a centralised fashion by big, hierarchically organised government agencies, and financed out of all-purpose tax funds. In some services, local governments would be appropriate producers and distributors, but only following a radical process of amalgamation and centralisation.
