The Future Welfare State and the Future Organization of Sport (Idræt)?

This paper discusses the relationship between the character of the welfare state and the existence and organization of sport (idræt) in Denmark. In particular, the paper will look into the current transformation of the welfare state including the role of privatized welfare services and welfare services based upon voluntary work and how it will affect the organization of sport/idræt. An organization of sport based the voluntary associations will be challenged because several voluntary associations will turn into more professionalized welfare organizations which might have unintended consequences e.g. more ad hoc loosely organized associations within sport will emerge. The traditional voluntary association – the core principle of organization of Danish sport – will decrease. Maybe even an allocation of resources to sport activities will be earmarked associations, which provide welfare services. This, again, will be an attack on the ‘Danish model’.
In other words, a future welfare state in which health becomes even more important due to the astronomic costs of the health sector the sport organization/voluntary association will be under pressure to provide health as a welfare service. More and more financial support will be dependent on the ability to deliver and to provide results – results in relation to improvement in health. Also, this will have many implications which w ill be discussed in the paper.