In the last chapter, I called attention to how human behavior is governed both by narrow self-interest and by the social norms emerging in an open, reasoning discourse. Put otherwise, human beings have dual utility functions and their behavior is strategic. What is the result of this in concrete politics? And what does it mean for the future of the universal welfare policy? The institutionalist approach I use here builds on the idea of a two-way relation between institutions and behavior. This means we must explain both what social forces and factors lie behind the appearance and subsequent reproduction of a universal welfare policy, and what effects on these social forces the universal welfare policy as an institution gives rise to. If we recall here the idea of dual utility functions, moreover, two questions arise. Firstly, what types of institutions and social norms sustain a macro-institution like a universal welfare policy? Secondly, which norms and interests are strengthened, and which are weakened, by the manner in which this institution operates?

It would perhaps be advantageous, pedagogically speaking, to examine the political and normative logics each in themselves. As I stressed in the last chapter, however, the whole point of the idea of dual utility functions is that the political and moral logics are intimately connected to each other, and so must be treated in a single context.