Introduction

This chapter focuses on the implementation of a work requirement introduced by the 1991 Social Services Act in Norway. The analysis rests on an understanding that workfare can be used to further objectives ranging from supporting the integration of unemployed people into the labour market, to a cost-cutting device designed to discourage claims from recipients and thereby reduce spending on social assistance (see Chapter One). In order to determine which is the outcome of programmes we need robust effect evaluations, which have yet to be carried out in Norway. Whereas this book focuses mainly on the analysis of programmes, as laid down in law and regulations, the theme of this chapter is that the way policies are altered in implementation may provide a clearer understanding of the balance between different objectives of a programme.

The inherent potential for pursuing different objectives makes studies at the implementation level particularly important in order to to understand how workfare functions. In addition to this, workfare is always implemented at the local level (Nathan, 1993). Workfare in Norway differs from the programmes in the other six countries reviewed in this book in two important ways. With a tradition of strong local autonomy in the implementation of social assistance, and now workfare, Norway represents an interesting, if not necessarily representative, case. Workfare in Norway is, moreover, highly selective and used as a condition tied to social assistance for a minority of recipients. Its selective nature is in part explained by the existence of well-developed Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs). While the main target groups of the latter schemes are insured unemployed people, many of these programmes are open to recipients of assistance on a voluntary or compulsory basis. This chapter therefore focuses on a form of workfare targeted at those most distant from the labour market. It is likely that workfare is more open to an implementation which is in conflict with official objectives in the Norwegian system, in comparison with systems where the central government introduces a programme with clear rules for implementation and where resources are allocated to the implementing agencies. Based on a study of implementation (Lødemel, 1997a) this chapter focuses on workfare as it was introduced and implemented in the early and mid-1990s. The introduction of workfare was part of a wider change in the Norwegian welfare state.