The objective of this master thesis is to disclose wherever or not the third way workfare policies change from the nineteen nineties have changed the post war social democratic welfare regime. The change we seek to unearth is in the potential transformation of the welfare state through policy arrangements on the institutional level, and to what degree these third way workfare policies have had consequences for the Danish citizens’ disposition regarding the welfare – workfare relation.
The question of welfare changing over time is here put in the setting of an institutional aspect; do the citizens adhere to the previous perception of Danish welfare state or have their dispositions change with the institutions adapted policies of the new third way workfare idea? The thesis furthermore seeks to acknowledge and conceptualize two stereotypes of welfare state, the universal social welfare scheme as described by Gøsta Esping-Andersen(1990) and Jørgen Goul Andersen(2003a) as opposed to Anthony Giddens’ the third way workfare. The question thus becomes which of the two schemes best categorizes the Danish disposition towards changing the welfare state?
In order to explain the welfare dispositions in the general public we look into institutional methodical design, where the aim is to see wherever or not the public has indeed accepted proposed institutional workfare change, or are the people still of a welfare cognizance. So it all comes down to whether or not the citizens are adapting to the institutional policy change regarding workfare or rejecting them.