ABSTRACT
The Scandinavian model of welfare, which we find in quite similar versions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, may also be categorized as social democratic. I. H. Moller claims that the first traces of neoliberal policies came to Scandinavia during the 1980s with debates concerning ‘welfare capitalism’ to a changing economy. Capitalism in the neoliberal era has proved its ability to adjust and adapt to markets where commodification enters all areas of life, making social feelings and acting into commodities and areas to make choices related to symbolic capital which may be deconstructed into cultural as well as economic assets. To enable personal responses to new social risks, the welfare state offers coaching, supervision and ego therapy. The new politics of welfare try to limit taxation and expenditure by tightening regulations and increasing the use of means-testing, incentives and limiting the duration of the best income substitution rights.
