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The Politics of Universalism: The Case of Finnish Sickness Insurance*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Olli Kangas
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Abstract

This study identifies the general structural, political and institutional configurations which conditioned the emergence of national health insurance in Finland. Due to late industrialisation, the Finnish case allows the evaluation of the importance of the agrarian versus working class interests in the emergence of the Scandinavian model. The study also seeks to answer how the contending theoretical approaches of the development of the welfare state serve to explain the characteristics of Finnish sickness provisions. After the historical overview, the results of the historical processes are examined by comparing the quality of Finnish sickness insurance with the Swedish, German and British cases, each representing different ideal types of the modern welfare state.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1992 , pp. 25 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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