The Public Management State: 1989 to 2006

Abstract

This chapter analyses the transformations from the end of the Cold War until 2006 (confer Reeh N, Religion and the state of Denmark – state religious politics in the elementary school system from 1721 to 1975, an alternative approach to secularization. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2006; Reeh N, Social Compass 60(2):236–250, 2013). The main development in the period was the transformation of Denmark from a welfare state to a competition state, or what is here called a new public management state. The significance of this change was that Danish schools increasingly specified the goals of teaching including the wish to ensure that pupils became democratic citizens. In addition, a reaction to the liberalisation of goods, capital, people, in short globalization can be observed in that Danish culture became more important in political discussions. This is particularly due to the fact that militant Islam became a potential threat, especially following the attacks on September 11, 2001 as well as the Cartoon Crisis in 2005/20066. The teaching of religion was in these years seen as an instrument to combat fundamentalism and terrorism.