Justification of workfare: the Norwegian case

During the 1990s the principle of workfarehas dominated welfare reforms in Europe; claimants are increasingly obliged to work in return for their benefits, otherwise they are denied the right to income support. In Norway this strategy is called the ‘work line’, and this article gives a critical account of five arguments used by the Norwegian government to justify it. The discussion focuses on the normative content and empirical assumptions involved in the arguments, and the conclusion is that none of them give good reasons to deny citizens basic opportunity goods. The article gives particular attention to the idea of social justice as reciprocity which is tacitly expressed in the arguments.