Sosiaalipolitiikan paradigman muutos: työkyvyttömyyspolitiikan uudet kasvot Alankomaissa ja Suomessa

Very little is still known about paradigm changes in the social policy field and about their mechanisms and politics in different countries. This article contributes to the subject by analysing processes of paradigm change in two countries, Finland and the Netherlands. Drawing on Peter Hall’s (1993) prominent work, it is suggested that paradigm changes are a result of broader societal debate where the search for ideas and legitimacy goes beyond the usual political arena of blame-avoiding politicians (Pierson 2001). A closer examination of disability benefit reforms and their politics between 1980 and 2006 shows that whereas the Dutch system of disability insurance benefit saw
a full scale paradigmatic change, with the cognitive and normative orientation to thinking in terms of incapacity for work giving way to thinking in terms of
work capability, the corresponding system in Finland only saw the addition of a new activation layer to the existing scheme. The reason why the reforms took
such very different paths probably has to do with the structural differences between the Finnish scheme (which is based on a pensions system) and the Dutch scheme (which is incorporated as part of the employee insurance system).