The Ghent system is the name given to an arrangement in some countries whereby the main responsibility for welfare payments, especially unemployment benefits, is held by trade unions rather than a government agency.
It is the predominant form of unemployment benefit in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden.
Belgium has a hybrid or "quasi-Ghent" system, in which the government also plays a significant role in distributing benefits.
In all of the above countries, unemployment funds held by unions or labour federations are regulated and/or partly subsidised by the national government concerned.
[2] Ghent system in Czechoslovakia was adopted in 1925 mainly thanks to social democrats.