Eksamensspørsmål

Question 1

A welfare state is a state that involves state responsibility for securing some basic modicum of welfare for its citizens.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

A Welfare state cannot be understood just in terms of the rights it grants. We must also take into account how state activities are interlocked with the market’s and the family’s role in social provision.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The social- insurance model promoted by conservative refomers such as Bismarck and von Taffe was also explicitly a form of class politics.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

If we wish to study welfare states, we must begin with a set of criteria that define their role in society.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

It is generally believed that welfare state backlash movements, tax revolts and roll-backs are ignited when social expenditure burdens become too heavy.

Answer 5

True

Question 6

The Scandinavian countries constitute the pole of highgrade incentivizing for sharing of parental roles.

Answer 6

True

Question 7

Many countries have granted parents the right to work part-time without losing benefits. These include Austria, Belgium, Germany and Portugal.

Answer 7

True

Question 8

Recent trends across the public sector have placed less emphasis on user involvement.

Answer 8

False

Question 9

The Welfare state seems to make less important contributions to the project of making human life as satisfying as possible.

Answer 9

False

Question 10

Theoretically and historically, the central criterion for citizenship has been independence, and the elements encompassed under the heading of independence have been based on masculine attributes and abilities.

Answer 10

True

Question 11

The welfare state has been fought for and supported by the labour movement and the women’s movement because only public or collective provision can maintain a proper standard of living and the means for meaningful social participation for citizens in a democracy.

Answer 11

True

Question 12

Nordic welfare states, through their policies, have pulled the women into the public sphere, and how women have then begun to push developments in accordance with their own interests.

Answer 12

True

Question 13

Nordic democracies embody a state form that makes it possible to transform them into women friendly societies. This claims rests on an analysis of these countries history and potential for development, as well as assumptions about the needs of women that are not uncontroversial.

Answer 13

True

Question 14

The transformation of socialist theory into social democratic practice in Norden was made possible by a culture characterized by a historically based passion for equality.

Answer 14

True

Question 15

Women’s interests are defined even in Scandinavia as special interests, and Nordic women’s movements major ideological aim has been to define them as general interests.

Answer 15

True

Question 16

The present problem on welfare state are health and pension schemes that increasingly impact on the budget and are likely to become unsustainable in the coming year.

Answer 16

True

Question 17

Pattern of demographic ageing differ substantially across countries. However, in all developed countries it is expected to lead to major shifts in the age composition of total population.

Answer 17

True

Question 18

Many countries have embarked on serious approaches to reforming their pension systems, while little has been done about financing health care or long-term care that goes beyond some short-term cost containment.

Answer 18

True

Question 19

When unemployment was high in the 1980s and early 1990s, virtually all countries in continental Europe created incentives in favour of early retirement, implying that the average age of retirement often became rather low there.

Answer 19

True

Question 20

Many countries, especially in Europe, are still struggling to increase the effective age of retirement beyond age 60 and to increase the statutory retirement age to 65. Which appears to be the current international standard for men and woman alike.

Answer 20

True

Question 21

There is more than one notion associated with the term social justice. In some connections, for example, justice is thought to have nothing to do with equality. Sometimes it seems to relate to need.

Answer 21

False

Question 22

There are important theories of social justice. The most famous such theory in modern discussion is that of John Rawls, which gives a very rich elaboration to a very simple idea: that the fair division of a cake would be one that could be agreed on by people who did not know which piece they were going to get.

Answer 22

True

Question 23

People are essentially social creatures, dependent on one another for the fulfilment of their needs and potential, and willing to recognize their responsibilities to others as well as claiming their rights from them.

Answer 23

True

Question 24

There is little reason why the government should not also play some role, or even take the initiative, in such areas as social insurance and education, or temporarily subsidize certain experimental developments.

Answer 24

True

Question 25

How many people would be poor if it were not for government help? These may be called the latent poor.

Answer 25

True

Question 26

During western Europe’s postwar economic boom, migrant workers played no part in economic growth, but most were not expected to stay permanently or make welfare claims. After the 1973 oil crisis, however, may so- called guest workers in fact stayed on, and were joined by spouses and children.

Answer 26

False

Question 27

In the United States, race, ethnicity, and immigration have played a prominent role in ideological and political battles that have brought about a recommodification of labour and the dismantling of welfare programmes.

Answer 27

True

Question 28

Under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, from 1979 to 1996 the United Kingdom did not pursued radical policies of economic deregulation, privatization, and restructuring of the welfare system.

Answer 28

False

Question 29

In a majority of OECD countries social programmes providing protection against new social risks are still at an embryonic stage, but virtually everywhere these issues are being discussed in public debates. There are big country variations in the extent to which New Social Risks (NSR) coverage has been developed, with the Nordic
countries being at the forefront.

Answer 29

True

Question 30

Changes in family structures and behaviour have resulted in increased rates of single parenthood across OECD countries, which presents a distinctive set of social policy problems. More generally, it is obvious that difficulties in reconciling work and family life are more serious for single parents than they are for two- parent households.

Answer 30

True

Question 31

Public health was once a highly controversial issue in European societies. The sanitary idea was rightly regarded by the pioneers of public health as an idea which had large and far- reaching chains of consequences.

Answer 31

True

Question 32

Welfare states can and do employ a remarkable variety of instruments, such as social insurance, direct provision in cash or in kind, subsidy, partnership with other agencies (including private business agencies) and action trough local authorities.

Answer 32

True

Question 33

In most European countries, particularly in Britain and Scandinavia, there has been a tendency for working – class pressures to lead to greater state internvention.

Answer 33

True

Question 34

The demand for state action has been related to the rights of citizenship, to equality as well as to security.

Answer 34

True

Question 35

The degree of equalization achieved (by the modern system of welfare benefits) depends on four things: whether the benefit is offered to all or to a limited class; whether it takes the form of money payment or service rendered; whether the minimum is high or low; and how the money to pay for the benefit is raised.

Answer 35

True

Question 36

Pattern of demographic ageing differ not substantially across countries. However, in all developed countries it is expected to lead to major shifts in the age composition of total population over the next three to four decades, with a decreasing share of individuals in their active life span and an increasing share of those of retirement age.

Answer 36

False

Question 37

In any case, cost containment in the health care sector is a major issue that remains to be addressed in many countries. The same applies to long- term care, where current levels of expenditure are smaller, while relative increases related to ageing are much more pronounced than in other areas.

Answer 37

True

Question 38

As a rule, individuals who want to retire before they reach a certain age threshold are not faced with reductions in pension benefits through shorter periods with contributions as well as special deductions to compensate for their longer duration of benefits

Answer 38

False

Question 39

To reduce health costs one could try to push medical progress in a new, cost- saving direction

Answer 39

True

Question 40

In countries where structural unemployment is high, or where labour force participation of particular groups- most notably among women and older workers- is relatively low, labour market reforms and other measures aiming to overcome these problems are not useful for various reasons.

Answer 40

False