The welfare system which has developed in the Nordic countries after the Second World War and has become the Nordic Welfare model is the unintended result of 40 years of reforms. The intellectual root of the model lies in UK in the 1930/40s. Lord John Maynard Keynes’ ideas of a pro-active economic policy and Lord Beveridge’s document about the welfare state are two pillars of the model. The Model is by now threatened by the ideology and regulations of the neo-liberal European Union (EU).

         Keywords: Nordic welfare state model, Europeanization, institutional change, external threats, neo-liberalism.  

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