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Retuning the Nordic welfare municipality: Central regulation of social care under change in Finland

Teppo Kröger (Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland)

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

ISSN: 0144-333X

Article publication date: 26 April 2011

1295

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changes that have taken place in the central regulation of social care in Finland since the 1970s. The changes in vertical central‐local relations are discussed in the context of economic and welfare state development.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a case study, applying the concept of “the Nordic welfare municipality” to the case of Finland. With this concept, the author refers to the inherently contradictory character of the Nordic model of welfare governance: to a system that emphasises local self‐government but that, at the same time, perceives regional harmonisation as imperative.

Findings

After strong central control during the most intensive construction period of the Finnish welfare state in the 1970s and 1980s, a radical decentralisation reform was implemented in 1993. However, since the early 2000s pressure for centralisation has increased again as emerging regional inequalities in care service provisions came under criticism.

Originality/value

The paper identifies a cycle of decentralisation and recentralisation that reflects the fundamental discrepancy between the maxims of local autonomy and regional equality that are both formative elements of local governance within the Nordic welfare model.

Keywords

Citation

Kröger, T. (2011), "Retuning the Nordic welfare municipality: Central regulation of social care under change in Finland", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 31 No. 3/4, pp. 148-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443331111120591

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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