“The Undeserving Citizens”: Erosion of Universalism as the Normative Basis of the Welfare State

Universalism has been one of the key institutions of the welfare state, particularly in its Nordic form. Universal public services and relatively generous social security have been understood as societal equalizers – rational and efficient mechanisms for promoting safety, stability, social cohesion, and economic equality. The first lecture discusses the erosion of universalism as a guiding principle underlying the redistributive ethos. Drawing on interview studies with wealthy individuals in Finland, it explores the gradual and uneven erosion of the universalist ethos vis-à-vis different public services and policies.

Focusing on so-called welfare profit-makers – actors who have economically benefited from the marketization of the welfare state – the lecture examines how the wealthy engage in moral boundary work, distinguishing between deserving and undeserving groups and between legitimate and illegitimate forms of welfare provision. In doing so, it asks what becomes of the redistributive ethos when universalism – and the rationality of the risk-bearing system – is increasingly replaced by selective and conditional moral frameworks.

Hanna Kuusela is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the MPIfG Scholar in Residence 2026. During her stay at the Institute, she presents a lecture series entitled "The Redistributive Ethos in Crisis: Three Imaginaries Dismantling the Welfare State." The three lectures will take place on May 5, and May 26, and June 2, 2026.

> Scholar in Residence Lectures 2026