The Danish Welfare System

One of the greatest differences that I could see between Danish society and US society was the importance of equal benefits to all citizens such as universal healthcare and welfare to whoever meets the requirements in Danish society. This is not the case in the United States where many people would not want to pay the exceptionally high taxes that support these systems. The Danish welfare system is egalitarian in that the principle behind the system is that all Danish citizens have access to social benefits regardless to their family situation, economic situation, or social background. This taxation and welfare system acts to spread the wealth of Danish society out more evenly. While it is the Danish government that regulates the taxation and maintains the welfare system, the Danish people largely support this system and are in favor of the social benefits that they can receive through the state, regardless of having to pay one of the highest personal income tax rates in Europe.
Learning this about Denmark, I started to wonder why a whole society would be in support of taxes that can take out, in some cases, more than half of a year’s income. Supporting such an extensive social benefits program and welfare system is definitely a compromise for many people. These more socialist policies both reflect and affect the egalitarian nature of Danish society. In Danish culture, equality in benefits among the Danish society is highly valued and people are willing to pay a price for social programs such as education and health care and for the welfare system. It can be said then that these policies have resulted the egalitarian nature of Danish society and its cultural ideals.


Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation
Welfare Society. Electronic document, http://www.workindenmark.dk/Welfare, accessed November 10, 2007.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
2007 The Welfare State as a Political Compromise. Electronic document, http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/AboutDenmark/SocietyWelfare/ScandinavianWelfareModel/TheWelfareStateAsAPoliticalCompromise, accessed November 10, 2007.

Danish Sports Teams

Anthropology examines how sports are used to create social cohesion, create national identities, and to promote ideologies. While I do not actively participate in or follow many sports, after studying the topic in class, I started to think how sports could affect and reflect Danish culture. While in Denmark, I noticed that many of the students I met played in club sports and followed their national teams. Handball, football (soccer), and badminton were among the most popular sports played and watched. Many great sports stars are from Denmark and instill national pride in Danish citizens. This source of common pride in national sports promotes cultural unity and social cohesion. Danish people can find common ground in relating to each other through the national teams they support. Pride in the national sports teams encourages national pride and helps to create a cultural identity.
There is a great amount of pride in the Danish national handball teams. Handball, a fast-paced game commonly compared to basketball and water polo, was invented in Denmark. The women’s handball team is very popular and largely supported in Denmark, having won the Olympic gold medal three times in a row and numerous other championships around Europe. I noticed that the women’s handball team seemed to be just as popular and as widely supported as the men’s team, if not more so. This was surprising to me because in the US, professional men’s teams are generally more popular and more widely endorsed than professional women’s teams. In the Danish culture, it seems like men’s and women’s sports are of more equal value in their society. In this more egalitarian model, people supporting both men’s and women’s teams equally can be seen as giving equal importance to both men and women. This equal support can be seen as a reflection of Danish cultural ideas and something that also promotes egalitarianism.

Aarhus Universitet
2007 Spectator Sports. Electronic document, http://www.au.dk/en/is/living/sports.htm, accessed November 4, 2007.