European edition: City University Press, Stockholm Original page number have been added to this text. Numbers in brackets [p 0] refer to Sociological Endeavor. We cannot avoid welfare arrangements. People who cannot cope for themselves are found in every society that lasts more than a generation. Following Arvidsson, Berntson and Dencik , we use the term social patronage for the support given to welfare populations. A state's commitment to welfare populations can vary from minimalist to maximalist.
A state with a large social patronage is defined as a welfare state or social state. We use these terms synonymously but prefer the latter in scholarly reasoning since government patronage often has consequences other than simply "welfare.
As in other countries, the modern Swede pays taxes in order to obtain public protection of life, limb and property. But he has also been promised, on an ever wider scale, a living standard that is guaranteed by the state as well as a kind of state support at the crossroads and difficulties of life that assumes a scope and form typical of the Scandinavian countries. A modern Swede can hardly imagine himself apart from his welfare state without having to redefine his self-image and his own national identity.
An internationally known Swedish economist calls the welfare state, not just a historical stage among many others, but a "triumph for the modern civilization" Lindbeck , p Kristersson describes how Swedish social legislation has evolved during the 20th century.
Like a mountain creek it starts out at the turn of the century with the establishment of the principle of universal welfare and basic security in the Public Pension Act of ; it maintains universal welfare with an income protection principle in the Industrial Disabilities Act of Slowly it gathers into a stream, establishing income protection at unemployment in the s. It forms at last a mighty torrent with Parents' Insurance and Dental Insurance , Partial Pensions , and, finally, the Social Service Act which set up local Welfare Offices with the ultimate responsibility of insuring that everyone within a municipality had a decent living standard.
