The welfare state and public expenditure 2000-2023

Resumé

Based on the troubles of the late 1970s, Denmark has succeeded in building budget systems that can apparently control the forces that are always pushing for higher spending. Denmark therefore appears in recent years as a model example of a (by and large) universal welfare state. However, the success is based, in addition to a tight budget regime, on an active labor market policy and high employment, which cannot be taken for granted. At the same time, there are winners and losers among the clients of the welfare state. There are two groups of winners in the past 25 years of development in the welfare state: recipients of health services and the elderly. The losers are children, families and primary school students. The economically deprived parts of the welfare state must look with envy at the strongly growing defense expenditures in the competition for future public spending.