Abstract
Solidarity has traditionally been equated in the social-political discourse with comprehensive welfare arrangements. Countries like Sweden with universal welfare systems have explicitly been labelled solidaristic’ (Baldwin, 1996; Esping-Andersen, 1985) to indicate a system where benefits and services are intended to cover the entire population through all the stages of life on the basis of uniform rules. Mutual financial responsibility and generous compensation levels are supposed not only to see to the interests of the weakest and most vulnerable groups, but also to provide societal cohesion. This image of universal welfare as solidaristic’ is foremost grounded in the perception of its general aim or redistributive outcome and less in any attention to its normative basis or socio-cultural setting. One advocate of a consistent welfare-state derived perspective on solidarity is Peter Baldwin, who underlines the universalist prerequisite in the following way:
If solidarity is to manifest itself in social policy, all must potentially be affected both as recipients and givers. By benefiting all in principle, solidaristic welfare cannot be the preserve of one particular group except in the theoretically incidental (but, of course, historically crucial) sense that some gain more than others in any specific context. Its basic premise is its implicit universality, that no one can be certain of self reliance and that solidarity is to the ultimate good of each (1990, pp. 35–36).
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Bergmark, Å. (2001). Solidarity in Universal Welfare — The Case of Sweden. In: ter Meulen, R., Arts, W., Muffels, R. (eds) Solidarity in Health and Social Care in Europe. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 69. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9743-2_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9743-2_17
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