The Scandinavian Welfare State

• Historical Origins 1890s-1930s

• Electorate and Parliament

• Political Principles

• Political-Economic Structure

• Culture of the Welfare State

• Current Challenges

Historical Origins of the Welfare State

• Continued significance of agrarian society during industrialization of late 19th and 20th centuries

• Agrarian cooperatives as means of managing production• Rise of Trade Unions as providers of stability to workers• Farmer (Agrarian Party) Labor (Social Democrat) coalitions

beginning in 1930s– Consumer-Producer compromise– Parliamentary control– Consensus on state planning and rationalization of production– Model depends on planning for growth

• Particular national concerns– Finland and USSR– Swedish manufacturing– Significance of Norwegian periphery– Danish agriculture

Electorate and Parliament• Social-Democratic Domination

– Since 1945, in all but Iceland, Social Democratic party has been largest all but twice

– Welfare state shaped by Social Democratic party

• Electors maintain consistent party affiliation thru 1970s– Left and Right blocs– Business and Labor

• “Payback”– Consistent growth– Wage solidarity– Wealth to pay for generous

benefits

SDP Emblem

Principles of the welfare state• Universalism

– Egalitarian distribution– Provision of services not means-

based– “Cradle to Grave”

• Keynesianism– Full Employment– Macro-economic management by

state through monetary and fiscal policy

• Contracts– Class– Gender– Age

• Corporatism– Inclusion– Consensus

1950s Denmark

Economic Stimulus for the Welfare State

• Marshall Plan and OECD aid for reconstruction

• Finnish reparations in kind• 1945-1955 relative austerity

with 4% growth• Markets managed to serve

the collective goals of the state

• What happens when growth slows?– 1973 Oil Crisis– Rise of neo-liberalism

Swedish Appliance Maker

Political-Economic Structure

• Constitutional change– Diminishment of royal political

role• Denmark 1953• Sweden 1975

– Unicameral parliaments– Deep enfranchisement

• Strong state role– High Taxation– Large state bureaucracy– Egalitarian distribution

• Prominent Trade Union Role• Industrial Focus

– Export-Import Economies– Monetary policy favoring

exports– Agrarian subsidy

Danish Company, Lego

Culture of the welfare state• Equality is uniformity

– Ethnic nation-states– Socio-economic measure

• Equality privileged– Even access– Society measured by the welfare

of the least well to do• “Morally defensible system”

– Domestic politics– International politics

• Solidarity• Dark side of equality

– “Law of Jante”– Paternalistic Planning– “Population management”

• Tense of thousands of forced sterilizations

• 1930s-1970s

Swedish Liquor Monopoly

Modernist and neo-Romantic Oslo

Challenges to the Welfare State

• Expense of the welfare system– Slow growth– Decreasing tax revenue– Increasing cost of benefits– State debt– EU pressures

• Deteriorating solidarity– New individualism– Values politics– Disaggregating nation

• Crisis of legitimacy– Public fragmentation– Diminishment of founding

principles of the welfare state

How to maintain a national system in a fragmented

world?

Conclusion

• Political and economic foundations of the welfare state established

• Rapid growth• Emergence of a politics and culture of the welfare

state 1950s-1990s– The Good State– Society of Equality

• Challenges for the future