Nationalist Reframing of theFinnish andSwedish Welfare States – The Nexus of Nationalism and Social Policy in Far‐right Populist Parties

Abstract

Although Sweden and Finland largely share a common welfare nation state discourse, the article also points to important differences in the way this discourse is able to frame the welfare nation state where access to and the design of social services are no longer universal and egalitarian but based around ethnicity. The article aims to demonstrate this through an analysis of the welfare discourses of two populist parties: the Sweden Democrats and the True Finns.

Welfare Chauvinism in Populist Radical Right Platforms: The Role of Redistributive Justice Principles

“…UKIP has staked out a similar position, yet has repeatedly proposed to redirect funds that the UK pays into the EU budget towards domestic social programmes. The PVV and SvD have regularly called for high levels of welfare spending for the native population, while seeking to exclude non‐natives from benefits (Schumacher and van Kersbergen ; Norocel , Nordensvard and Ketola ).…”

Welfare, equality and social justice: Scottish independence and the dominant imaginings of the ‘New’ Scotland

“…However, the oft idealised perception of the Nordic countries is itself increasingly out of step with developments therein. In their study of nationalism and the reframing of Finnish and Swedish welfare states by far-right political parties, Nordensvard and Ketola (2015) explore the different ways in which nationalism and social policy has come to be reframed in terms of a 'welfare nation state'. The key aspect of this is the focus on nation by such parties, which is used to delineate an exclusive and bounded national community threat by immigration which is undermining state social welfare.…”

The ‘New’ Far Right in Hungary: A Political Psychologist's Perspective

“…Both parties have incorporated a nativist approach whereby they subscribe to the universality of welfare provisions along the fundamental premise that priority must be given to ethnic/ native Swedes or Finns (Nordensvard and Ketola 2014;Arter 2010). Moreover, both parties add a touch of cultural exeptionalism in that they regard welfare provisions as a distinctive socio-cultural feature of either Sweden and/or Finland.…”

“…A higher emphasis on anti-immigration speech and Islamophobia appears more frequently in the rhetoric of the Sweden Democrats (Rydgren 2004). Meanwhile, the Sweden Democrats, as well as the True Finns, deplore the alleged 'democratic deficit' in the EU institutions and object to the EU's 'interventionism' into Sweden's and/or Finland's domestic affairs (Nordensvard and Ketola 2014). In all of this, the two parties formally acknowledge their commitment to parliamentary democracy.…”