On Kings, Pietism and Rent-seeking in Scandinavian Welfare States

Abstract

This paper argues that the origins of the Scandinavian welfare states are most usefully seen in the small-state absolutism and Lutheran Pietism characterizing 18th-century Denmark/Norway. Towards the end of the 18th century, the Danish monarch or, more correctly, his agents, created a quite generous set of welfare benefits in the 1799 Poor Law for the City of Copenhagen. In return for non-punitive and generous support, the state assumed that recipients would be obedient and grateful servants of the state and its institutions. This system was replaced with more punitive and petty systems as liberalism gained importance in the following century, but basic elements of the Pietist model for the relationship between state and citizen were maintained and recreated in the development of the generous welfare state of the late 20th century.