From Social State to Minimal State

From Social State to Minimal State (Danish: Fra socialstat til minimalstat) is a book by Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Published in 1993, it expounded the future Danish Prime Minister's classical liberal worldview. He argued that Denmark should transition from a welfare state into a low-tax economy, and delivered advice and reflections on how it should be done.

Rasmussen was a backbencher, and the book formed a part of his strident criticism of the post-war welfare state. In the book, Rasmussen said that the welfare state was "developing a slave mentality in the people." He argued that economic inequality was the prime motivating force in society, maintaining that its existence was not, by itself, a bad thing: only poverty was.

Rasmussen repeatedly makes the point in the book that Danish people pay the highest taxes in the world, which he would press again in the 2001 parliamentary election that saw him become Prime Minister. However, he has otherwise repudiated many of the views expressed in the book: moving towards the orthodox centre-right and supporting environmentalism.