Meeting Needs Versus Respecting Autonomy — Dilemmas of the Welfare State

The practice of the Swedish welfare state can be characterised as very contradictory. On the one hand, this practice can guarantee a certain degree of welfare, security and life without suffering. On the other hand the same practice can control the individual. This contradiction has become more evident over the last few years through cutbacks in spending on social programs. This has been regarded by some as a crisis of the welfare state and the end of its future. But cutbacks can also serve as starting points for a new debate about the dilemma of the welfare state, and can initiate the development of a deeper knowledge of its practices and how to deal with its contradictions.