Jon Kvist is a professor of European Public Policies and Well-being at Roskilde School of Governance, Institute for Social Science and Business, Roskilde University. Kvist has published widely on the Nordic welfare model, inequality, social investments, Europeanization and methods, including a recent book on private welfare (Frihed, Lighed og Privat velfærd with co-author Jesper Brask Fischer). Kvist has been on various Danish government Commissions , including most notably on Reforms (Reformkommissionen), Social Policy (Ekspertudvalget på det sociale område) Minimum Income Benefits (Ydelseskommissionen), and unemployment insurance (Dagpengekommissionen). He also sits as an expert and a country coordinator in the European Commission’s European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAnet). He has chaired and participated in numerous international research projects and working groups.
The Nordic welfare model is often showcased internationally for its ability to combine high employment with exceptionally low levels of inequality. Yet domestically, pressing questions persist. In Denmark: Why has the number of vulnerable youth and adults remained stubbornly high, despite decades of reform and current labor shortages? Is the modern welfare state itself contributing to problems it is meant to solve?
In his keynote, Jon Kvist draws on insights from comparative welfare state research and his extensive experience in national commissions to explore paradoxes of the Nordic welfare model. He will highlight both its enduring strengths and its limitations, and offer reflections on how the model might evolve to address emerging social challenges. The talk invites critical discussion on the future of the welfare state in a Nordic context.
Femke Roosma is Professor by special appointment at the Dr. J.M. den Uyl chair at the University of Amsterdam and Associate Professor Sociology at Tilburg University, in the Netherlands. She conducts research into the welfare state and social policy, and how these can ensure better social security and more social cohesion in society. In particular, she studies multiple dimensions of welfare attitudes, solidarity and deservingness perceptions and trust in the context of the welfare state. Her leading research interest is how we can strengthen the legitimacy of the welfare state.
In recent decades, the welfare state has come under pressure from both external and internal factors, such as the financial crisis, COVID-19, ongoing fiscal austerity, demographic changes, ‘new’ social risks, immigration and welfare chauvinism, as well as challenges related to effective policy implementation and digital welfare. On the one hand, the welfare state still enjoys broad support and is perhaps even taken for granted; on the other hand, there is growing dissatisfaction with its performance on various dimensions.
Against the backdrop of these pressures, the legitimacy of the welfare state emerges as a complex issue. It depends not only on underlying patterns of solidarity between different groups in society, but also on people’s trust in institutions and in the street-level bureaucrats responsible for implementing policy. Do people perceive the welfare state as acting with integrity, as being responsive and competent in fulfilling its tasks—and what role does individuals’ institutional capital play in shaping these perceptions?
This keynote examines how various dimensions and aspects of trust in the welfare state contribute to the construction—or erosion—of its legitimacy. Drawing on empirical examples from both qualitative and quantitative (case) studies, it illustrates how trust in the social system is formed through the interplay between policy, implementation, and citizens’ institutional capital, and what challenges this presents for sustaining broad public support for the welfare state.