Att redefiniera en välfärdsregim : en kritisk studie av den politiska debatten om personlig assistans

Sammanfattning: This study critically examines and reviews the current political debate on personal assistance and problematizes it in relation to the changes of the welfare state. The study has been conducted by applying critical discourse analysis to two parliamentary debates on personal assistance from 2016 and 2017. The purpose of the study has been to deepen and problematize the debate on personal assistance based on theories of the changes regarding the welfare state. Through the analysis of the statements in the debates, three legitimization strategies have been identified that are politically used to defend, explain and minimize the damage caused by socio-political austerity regarding the public welfare. The legitimization strategies intend to renounce political responsibility, impel cheating, overuse, and cost development beyond control and redefine the socialdemocratic welfare regime. The redefinition results in a renegotiation of social rights and a shift from a general to selective welfare. Ongoing socio-political austerity of personal assistance is an example of the liquidation of the traditional welfare state. A change in which welfare is increasingly a responsibility for the individual. It is part of the neoliberal practice where the state no longer compensates for market failures.