Stratification and Education: A temporal study of stratification within the education systems of the social democratic welfare regime 1990 and 2013

Abstract: This paper focuses on the stratification within the education systems of the social-democratic welfare regime. Since 1990 the welfare states and education systems of Denmark, Finland, Norway Sweden has changed significantly. At the same time there has been a decrease in the power of the working class and its allies. According to the Power Resource Theory this should, at least eventually, lead to a roll-back in the welfare state. This paper attempts to observe whether this holds true for the education systems in the regime. In order to do that this study utilizes Esping-Andersen’s concept of stratification to see if the countries within the re-gime have shifted. The conclusion is that the results are mixed and that while stratification has increased in some aspects it has actually decreased in others mostly to do with an increase in the access to pre-school.