The paper describes how the interaction between the state and the social partners has developed in four welfare related policy areas (pensions, activation, continuous training, and maternity/paternity leave) and to what extent the interaction has led to corporatist arrangements. Furthermore, it seeks to explain the development in corporatism by discussing various factors that have impacted on the development. The paper contains three main arguments. Firstly, that corporatism continues to play a role in Danish labour market and welfare state regulation, mostly in the form of ad hoc agreements on policy formulation and permanent involvement in implementation within specific policy areas. Secondly, that the division of labour between state and social partners have started to erode and a ‘grey zone' has developed, where the state and the social partners have to define new divisions of labour. Thirdly, that this grey zone is one of the drivers of Danish corporatism. Other drivers are the consensus principle of the Danish model; the social partner confederations' search for new sources of legitimacy; the state's need of the social partners for improving implementation; and the pressure on the state budget. External factors, such EU-integration and EMUcriteria, have had a minor impact.