Download or read book Creating Social Democracy written by Klaus Misgeld and published by Penn State University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Swedish Social Democratic Labor Party (SAP) was founded more than one hundred years ago, in April 1889. During this "century of social democracy" Sweden has been transformed from an agrarian to an industrial society, from a poor country to a welfare state; and the SAP has evolved from being a lower-class movement to the nation's leading party for more than half a century. Is Sweden's development so special and is the Swedish labor movement unique when viewed from an international perspective? When were the critical decisions taken, what did the Social Democrats want to achieve, and what have they actually succeeded in doing—especially in light of the Social Democrats' loss of governmental power in 1991? These questions are discussed in thirteen essays addressing economic policy, social and welfare policy, international policy, and the party's inner structure and ideology. Two additional chapters on historical background and the latest developments in Sweden and some tables make this volume valuable for readers wanting competent information about Sweden, about the development of Swedish society, and about the most successful Social Democratic Labor party in Europe.
Download or read book The Political Theory of Swedish Social Democracy written by Timothy Alan Tilton and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1990 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweden's Social Democratic movement is widely regarded as the most successful of its kind in the world. Its success is often attributed to its pragmatism rather than its consistent ideological commitment. This book argues that, on the contrary, Sweden's distinctive economic and social policies cannot be understood apart from the ideological convictions of several generations of political leaders and thinkers. Examining the thinking of major figures in Swedish Social Democracy (including Hjalmar Branting, Gunnar Myrdal, and Olof Palme), this book provides the first up-to-date survey of the party's ideological development from its origins in the 1880s until the present.
Download or read book Between growth and security written by Jenny Andersson and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-19 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of social policy as a productive investment and a prerequisite for economic growth became a core feature in the ideology of Swedish social democracy, and a central component of the universalism of the Swedish welfare state. However as the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) embarked on its Third Way in 1981, this outlook on social policy as a productive investment was replaced by the identification of social policy as a cost and a burden for growth. This book discusses the components of this ideological turnaround from Swedish social democracy’s post-war notion of a strong society, to its notion of a Third Way in the early 1980s. It is a novel and innovative contribution to the history of Swedish social democracy and recent developments in the Swedish welfare state, and it also sheds light on contemporary social policy debates. It will appeal to a wide readership from students of contemporary history and politics to policy makers and specialists.
Download or read book The Age of Social Democracy written by Francis Sejersted and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-10 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of how Norway and Sweden became the envy of the modern world This is the history of how two countries on the northern edge of Europe built societies in the twentieth century that became objects of inspiration and envy around the world. Francis Sejersted, one of Scandinavia's leading historians, tells how Norway and Sweden achieved a rare feat by realizing grand visions of societies that combine stability, prosperity, and social welfare. It is a history that holds many valuable lessons today, at a time of renewed interest in the Scandinavian model. The book tells the story of social democracy from the separation of Norway and Sweden in 1905 through the end of the century, tracing its development from revolutionary beginnings through postwar triumph, as it became a hegemonic social order that left its stamp on every sector of society, the economy, welfare, culture, education, and family. The book also tells how in the 1980s, partly in reaction to the strong state, a freedom and rights revolution led to a partial erosion of social democracy. Yet despite the fracturing of consensus and the many economic and social challenges facing Norway and Sweden today, the achievement of their welfare states remains largely intact.
Download or read book The Nordic Model of Social Democracy written by N. Brandal and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-02-21 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social Democracy has long been prominent in Nordic politics through the dominant parties and ideological hegemony of the centre-left. This book explores the growth of social democracy and the policy dilemmas that social democrats face today. It breaks new ground by relating recent literature on social democracy in Europe to Scandinavia.
Download or read book Sweden written by Henry Milner and published by Oxford ; Toronto : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly two generations, social commentators and scholars have seen in Sweden a mirror of their own hopes and fears for the future. Proponents of economic and social democracy have been attracted by Sweden's egalitarian policies, while libertarians have expressed alarm at its corporatismand statism. In this account of Sweden's successful individual rights and collective responsibility, and its balance between equitable distribution and economic efficiency, Henry Milner portrays social democracy as a way of life. He sees it as a functioning social system embodying the principlesof economic well-being, fair remuneration for work, social solidarity, democracy, participation, access to information, and respect for the environment in the way its members choose to act towards each other and live their lives.
Download or read book The Social Democratic Moment written by Sheri BERMAN and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In addition to revising our view of the interwar period and the building of European democracies, this book cuts against the grain of most current theorizing in political science by explicitly discussing when and how ideas influence political behavior. Even though German and Swedish Social Democrats belonged to the same transnational political movement and faced similar political and social conditions in their respective countries before and after World War I, they responded very differently to the challenges of democratization and the Great Depression--with crucial consequences for the fates of their countries and the world at large. Explaining why these two social democratic parties acted so differently is the primary task of this book. Berman's answer is that they had very different ideas about politics and economics--what she calls their programmatic beliefs. The Swedish Social Democrats placed themselves at the forefront of the drive for democratization; a decade later they responded to the Depression with a bold new economic program and used it to build a long period of political hegemony. The German Social Democrats, on the other hand, had democracy thrust upon them and then dithered when faced with economic crisis; their haplessness cleared the way for a bolder and more skillful political actor--Adolf Hitler. This provocative book will be of interest to anyone concerned with twentieth-century European history, the transition to democracy problem, or the role of ideas in politics.
Download or read book The Limits of Social Democracy written by Jonas Pontusson and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Pontusson's book does an excellent job in taking a critical look at Swedish investment politics. . . . On the whole, this book is the best overall explanation of Swedish investment politics. It gives the reader a clear basis for understanding the rise of Swedish social democracy and provides a detailed examination of the developments of industrial policy, codetermination, and wage-earner funds.'--Contemporary Sociology
Download or read book The Social Democratic State written by Bo Rothstein and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Swedish Social Democratic Party, the SAP, is the most successful social democratic party in the world. It has led the government for most of the last six decades, participating either alone or as the dominant force in coalition government. The SAP has also worked closely with trade unions that have organized nearly 85 percent of the labor force, the highest rate among the advanced industrial democracies. Rarely has a political party been so dominant or so closely linked to labor movement. Yet Sweden remains very much a capitolist society with economic and social power firmly in the hands of big capitol.If one wants to know if politics, and most especially if reformist politics, matters - if, that is, political mobilization can change democratic capitolists societies - then Sweden under the Social Democrats is clearly one of the best empirical cases to study.Bo Rothstein uses the Swedish experience to analyze the limits a social democratic government labors under and the possibilities it enjoys in using the state to implement large-scale social change. He examines closely two SAP programs, one a success and the other a failure, that attempted to change social processes deeply embedded in capitolist society. He ties the outcomes of these programs to the structure of the state and hypothesizes that the outcome depends, to a considerable extent, on how administrative apparatuses responsible for implementing each policy are organized. Rothstein concludes that no matter how wisely a reformist policy is designed nor how strong the political party behind it, if the administrative arrangements are faulty, it will fail at the stage of implementation.Rothstein convincingly demonstrates that the democratic capitolist countries of the world have important lessons to learn from the Swedish experience regarding the possibilities for political reform. Political scientists and political reformers alike can learn much from Rothstein's deep knowledge of Swedish government and his innovative model for analyzing political reform in social democratic societies.
Download or read book German Social Democracy 1905 1917 written by Carl E. Schorske and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1955 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No political parties of present-day Germany are separated by a wider gulf than the two parties of labor, one democratic and reformist, the other totalitarian and socialist-revolutionary. Social Democrats and Communists today face each other as bitter political enemies across the front lines of the Cold War; yet they share a common origin in the Social Democratic Party of Imperial Germany. How did they come to go separate ways? By what process did the old party break apart? How did the prewar party prepare the ground for the dissolution of the labor movement in World War I, and for the subsequent extension of Leninism into Germany? To answer these questions is the purpose of Carl Schorske's study.
Download or read book Democracy and the Economy in Finland and Sweden since 1960 written by Ilkka Kärrylä and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the relationship between democracy and the economy in contemporary political thought and policy-making. Using the concepts of economic, industrial and enterprise democracy, the author focuses on the history of Finland and Sweden during the latter part of the twentieth century. The three concepts are discussed in relation to various political groups, such as social democrats, conservatives and liberals, and the reforms that they were associated with, painting a picture of changing economic thought in the Nordic countries, and the West more generally. Arguing that the concept of democracy has evolved from representative parliamentary democracy towards ‘participation’ in civil society, this book demonstrates how the ideal of individual freedom and choice has surpassed collective decision-making. These shared characteristics between Finland, Sweden and other Western countries challenge the view that the Nordic countries have been exceptional in resisting neoliberalism. In fact, as this book shows, neoliberalism has been influential to the Nordics since the 1970s. Offering an innovative and conceptual perspective on European political history, this book will appeal to scholars interested in Nordic political history and modern European history more generally.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Swedish Politics written by Jon Pierre and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook provides a broad introduction to Swedish politics, and how Sweden's political system and policies have evolved over the past few decades.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Welfare Machine written by Carly Elizabeth Schall and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweden is well known for the success of its welfare state. Many believe that success was made possible in part by the country's ethnic homogeneity and that the increased diversity of Sweden’s population is putting its welfare state at risk. Few, however, have suggested convincing mechanisms for explaining the precise relationship between relative ethnic homogeneity/heterogeneity and the welfare state. In this book Carly Elizabeth Schall acknowledges the important role of ethnic homogeneity in Sweden’s thriving welfare state, but she argues that it mattered primarily because political elites—especially social democrats—made it matter.Schall shows that diversity and the welfare state are related but that diversity does not undermine the welfare state in a straightforward way. Tracing the development of the Swedish welfare state from the late 1920s until the present day, she focuses on five historical periods of crisis. She argues that the story of Swedish national identity is a story of elite-driven hegemony-building and that the linking of social democracy and national identity colored the integration of immigrants in important ways. Social democracy could have withstood the challenge posed by immigration, but the faltering of social democratic hegemony opened a door for anti-immigrant sentiment. In her deft analysis of the relationship between immigration and the welfare state in Sweden, Schall makes a compelling argument that has relevance for immigration policy in the United States and elsewhere.
Download or read book The Theory of Social Democracy written by Thomas Meyer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ascendancy of neo-liberalism in different parts of the world has put social democracy on the defensive. Its adherents lack a clear rationale for their policies. Yet a justification for social democracy is implicit in the United Nations Covenants on Human Rights, ratified by most of the worlds countries. The covenants commit all nations to guarantee that their citizens shall enjoy the traditional formal rights; but they likewise pledge governments to make those rights meaningful in the real world by providing social security and cultural recognition to every person. This new book provides a systematic defence of social democracy for our contemporary global age. The authors argue that the claims to legitimation implicit in democratic theory can be honored only by social democracy; libertarian democracies are defective in failing to protect their citizens adequately against social, economic, and environmental risks that only collective action can obviate. Ultimately, social democracy provides both a fairer and more stable social order. But can social democracy survive in a world characterized by pervasive processes of globalization? This book asserts that globalization need not undermine social democracy if it is harnessed by international associations and leavened by principles of cultural respect, toleration, and enlightenment. The structures of social democracy must, in short, be adapted to the exigencies of globalization, as has already occurred in countries with the most successful social-democratic practices.
Download or read book In Search of Social Democracy written by John Callaghan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first work to reflect in detail on the Left's experiences in government in the 1990s and early twenty-first century.
Download or read book Social Democracy in Power written by Wolfgang Merkel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalization, European integration, and social change have devaluated traditional social democratic policy instruments. This book compares and explores how social democratic governments have had to adapt and whether they have successfully managed to uphold old social democratic goals and values in the light of these challenges. This volume examines the policy measures of social democratic parties in government in a comparative framework. The authors focus on traditional social democratic goals and tools, in particular, fiscal, employment, and social policy, in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. They identify three policy patterns in social democratic governments: traditional, modernized, and liberalized social democracy and provide a comparative account of the explanatory power of the national context for policy adopted by social democratic parties. Finally, the extent to which social democratic parties have been able to use the European Union as a political space for social democratic governance and policy-making is examined. Social Democracy in Power will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, comparative politics, European studies and public policy.
Download or read book The Death of Social Democracy written by Ashley Lavelle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whereas many writers and scholars interested in the field of social democracy have focused on factors such as the role of economic globalization and electoral pressures, Ashley Lavelle explores the importance of the collapse of the post-war economic boom and lower growth rates since then. He examines how these pressures have led social democrats to embrace neo-liberal policies and become threatened by minor parties and independent politicians. Providing an original argument about the decline of social democracy, the author investigates how its decline has increased the popularity of minor parties and independents, along with the reasons for social democratic membership and electoral decline. This is an important book for scholars of social democracy and the broader themes of world politics, political parties, social movements and globalization.
