Det stille sporskifte i velfærdsstaten - en diskursteoretisk beslutningsprocesanalyse
(The Quiet Change in the Welfare State)

By Jacob Torfing, Roskilde University was published in March 2004.

311 p., DKK 248.00.
Order at Aarhus University Press: www.unipress.dk or +45 89 42 53 70.
 

The book tells the good and exciting story about the development in Danish social and labor market policy in the period from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, during which the basic paradigm in the welfare state was changed from welfare to workfare. The analysis problematizes the commonplace understanding of politics as something that takes place in parliament and has the form of an interest-based power struggle. Political decisions are to a large extent taken in broad, crosscutting governance networks that are held together by vague and ambiguous narratives and storylines, which facilitate negotiation, learning and compromise formation. 

The book aims to demonstrate the fruitfulness of discourse theory in a methodologically self-reflecting study of major reforms in the Danish welfare state. It points out the significance of discursive power struggles and discusses the democratic problems and potentials of discursively constructed governance networks.

 


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