Activation Policies and the Protection of Individual Rights: A Critical Assessment of the Situation in Denmark, Finland and Sweden

by Aerschot,Paul Van

• ISBN13: 9781409401797
• ISBN10: 1409401790
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781317185642
• Additional ISBN(s): 9781317185642
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The book starts from the premise that social policy is necessarily embedded in the broader legal system, which is presumed to protect the client against infringements of his rights. The rights involved are especially the right to personal freedom and integrity and the right to respect for private life as well as the principles of legality, equality and proportionality. In Denmark, Finland and Sweden the evolution of administrative law, including social welfare law, has been marked by a shift towards a stronger protection of the recipient's individual rights. The adoption of activation policies targeting recipients of social assistance has highlighted the tensions between decision-making concerning the implementation of these policies and the legislative efforts to promote the realisation of individual rights in the field of social welfare. Following a general analysis of activation policies and the set of legal safeguards applicable to them the author examines the legislation enacted in the three countries to apply these policies to the recipients of social assistance. The indeterminacy of the legal rules in question has been translated into implementation practices strongly shaped by the local authorities. In using their discretionary powers the decision-makers subordinate the realisation of individual rights to organisational and other objectives. This increases the imbalance in the power relations between the official and the client and may easily result in violations of individual rights. The study concludes by explicating the significance of individual rights in social welfare and by exploring means to further their realisation. The moves proposed are the promotion of an egalitarian model of social citizenship centred on respect for individual rights and the application of a systematization of individual rights based on interactive contexts of decision-making.