Nationalist Reframing of the F innish and S wedish Welfare States – The Nexus of Nationalism and Social Policy in Far‐right Populist Parties

Abstract

Abstract The rise of right‐wing populist parties in theNordic countries is slowly redefining theNordic social democratic discourse of the universal and egalitarian welfare state. The nexus of nationalism and social policy has been explored in regions and countries such asQuebec,Scotland,Belgium and theUK, but the change of discourse in theNordic countries has received less attention. Taking the case ofSweden andFinland, this article argues thatNordic populism does not question the redistributive welfare state per se as many otherEuropean neo‐liberal far‐right parties have done. Instead, it reframes the welfare state as being linked to a sovereign and exclusiveSwedish andFinnish political community with distinct national boundaries. AlthoughSweden andFinland 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:SwedenDemocrats andTrueFinns.

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