Welfare state is more vulnerable to the deterioration of the element of Christian commitment
The Scandinavian type of welfare state is more vulnerable to the deterioration of the element of Christian commitment than other regimes, because the latter constituted a more significant part of it. The origin of the Northern welfare state does not lie in a particular political philosophy, but derives from the nationalisation of the churches and all their welfare services in the sixteenth century.
[...]Any student of the events surrounding the integration of Finland into the Russian Empire between the time of the Peace of Tilsit (1807, when France allowed Russia to annex Finland from Sweden) and independence (1917), continually encounters legal issues concerning welfare benefits. Did Russia have to take over the Finnish pension obligations from Sweden? Did the Russians have to pay the pensions of the Fins in St. Petersburg and was there no risk that the Russians would start demanding pensions too? Who was to help pay for the failed harvests in the north? What if a Fin who had had a career in St. Petersburg wanted to go to a retirement home in his birthplace? Would the Russians have to pay for that? And would Russian workers not want to have the same welfare services as the Scandinavian churches provided and give the Orthodox church an active role in social reform.
This Christian component, with active state churces, was very strong in the Northern countries until three decades ago. The decline of the Scandinavian model is the result of the decline of the active component of this social model. Those who wish to undermine this Christian component will simply have to accept the weakening of the welfare services.
