Social Solidarity? Straying from the ideals of the welfare state
The Danish welfare system is ostensibly grounded in the principle of solidarity among citizens. Traditionally, its underlying philosophy has been the socialistic ideal that the state has the responsibility to secure for everyone “the necessary material framework for living a reasonable life,” in the words of Denmark’s official website. In recent years, by the Danish people’s own admission, the country’s model has fallen short of this goal. A 2008 article in Jyllandsposten reported that a poll conducted by Ugebrevet A4 shows 59% of those polled to believe that the economic gap between rich and poor needs to be reduced. In the words of Per Shulz Jørgensen, leader of the Alternative Welfare Commission: “the welfare society is not living up to its own principles—inequality has increased, poverty has returned.” Poverty in Denmark has increased, and threatens to continue rising in the coming years if current trends remain unchanged. As Karin Larsen, department leader at Kofoed’s School, told us in reference to the failures of the current welfare system: “you’d have to be blind and deaf in Denmark if you don’t know about it.” Indeed, there seems to be a common consensus that homelessness and poverty are growing problems, relative to other years under the Danish welfare state.
There are several indications that poverty in Denmark is rising. According to a 2009 article published by the online newspaper Avisen.dk, from 2001 to 2006 the number of poor increased by 55,000. Why is poverty rising in a country with a welfare system that purports to ensure that “all citizens have equal rights to social security”? A study of the discourse and practices surrounding that system suggests that Danish society has effectively abandoned—in practice if not yet in mind—the ideals underlying the original conception for the Danish Model. Although people may insist that solidarity is still the main driving principle behind the welfare system in Denmark, the reality that confronts the country today suggests otherwise. Current welfare policies amount to a substantively new type of system, which operates on different principles than Danish society seems ready to admit. Dr. Preben Brandt, founder and director of Project Outside and author of the recent book, The City and Social Inequality, characterizes the problem as “a schism between what you would like to show and what you really are.” “People still feel they want more solidarity in the system but they are acting differently,” says Brandt. This gap between principle and practice threatens to systematically neglect a growing population of needy and excluded persons in Denmark