Fiscal Squeeze in Sweden, 1990–1997:

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Lindbom
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Remarkable Recovery ◽  
Basic Characteristics ◽  
Incumbent Party ◽  
The Guardian

This chapter describes how the Swedish fiscal squeeze of the 1990s was implemented and the effects it had. The economic effects of the fiscal squeeze were largely positive, in that the Swedish economy made a remarkable recovery. Moreover, the squeeze was achieved without changing the basic characteristics of the famous ‘Swedish model’ welfare state. However, unemployment did not return to the very low levels Sweden used to have before the 1990s. This partly explains increasing relative poverty. Short-run political effects of the fiscal squeeze were noticeable in 1998. After a temporary recovery in 2002, the relatively high unemployment hurt the incumbent party in the election of 2006 when the Social Democrats experienced historically bad electoral consequences. The fiscal squeeze cost the party a trump card: its status as the guardian of the Swedish welfare state is no longer unchallenged.

Sweden after Swedish Model

2014 ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
I. Grishin
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social State ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Swedish Society ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Government

Since the turn of the 1980–90s the Swedish society has undergone fundamental changes. It has altered the vector of the socioeconomic development. The social democrats have lost their position as the dominant party. They changed the course of the governmental policy from social-state to liberal one that was taken over and strengthened by the government of center-right parties after their victory in the 2006 and 2010 general elections. The social democrats have found themselves in the unprecedented since 1917 long opposition. All of this means that, despite keeping predominance of the institutional-redistributive principle of social policy, the former model of societal development has in essence consigned to history.

Worker and the Welfare State in Imperial Germany

1991 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 18-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Steinmetz
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Imperial Germany ◽  
The Social ◽  
Insurance Funds ◽  
The Welfare State

A complex relationship existed between working-class formation and the development of the welfare state in Imperial Germany between 1871 and 1914. In the 1880s, the Social Democratic party voted against the three major national social insurance law's, and many workers seemed to spurn the incipient welfare state. But by 1914, socialists were active in social policy-making and workers were participating in the operations of the welfare state. Tens of thousands of workers and social democrats held positions in the social insurance funds and offices, the labor courts and labor exchanges, and other institutions of the official welfare state. Hundreds of workers had even become “friendly visitors” in the traditional middle-class domain of municipal poor relief. This shift is interesting not only from the standpoint of working-class orientations; it also challenges the received image of the German working class as excluded from the state —an interpretation based on an overly narrow focus on national parliamentary politics.

scholarly journals Extreme Rechte in der Krise – Kämpfe ums Subjekt

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (157) ◽  
pp. 577-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Kaindl
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
The State ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bail Out ◽  
Mode Of Production ◽  
The Welfare State

The success of right wing parties in Europe is closely linked to the lack of representation that went along with the neoliberal shift of the social democrats. Feelings of injustice going along with altering the trans-national mode of production, concepts of the welfare state and labour politics were taken into account by rightwing “critics” that fight globalization in fighting immigrants. The crisis and bail-out-politics enforced feelings of injustice but at the same time brought the state – and the unions – ‘back in’ e.g. in creating a ‘clash-for-clunkers’ project. That seems to have weakened right-wing parties in Germany and France presenting themselves as an authoritarian fordistic option, but at the same time strengthened racist campaigns in other countries.

The Swedish Social Democrats and the ‘new Swedish model’: playing a losing game

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claes Belfrage ◽  
Mikko Kuisma
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
The Social

This chapter focuses on the Swedish Social Democrats. After the 2006 Swedish elections, the Social Democratic Party (SAP), the ‘natural party of government’ during the construction and heyday of the famous ‘Swedish model’ in the second half of the 20th century, entered opposition for eight long years. Initially at least, some might have taken this to represent just a regular short-term slump in electoral politics. However, it could also be seen as the beginning of a long decline. The party is playing a losing game and the only way in which it can reverse its fortunes is by calling the very foundations of the ‘new Swedish model’, now ironically perhaps associated with the Conservative administration of Fredrik Reinfeldt, into question.

scholarly journals How Socialist is Solidaristic Social Policy? Swedish Postwar Reform as a Case in Point

1988 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Social

SUMMARYThe postwar welfare state, as epitomized by Beveridge's Plan, seemed to mark a major departure from social policy's traditional Bismarckian ambition to ameliorate and preserve existing social circumstances. Many have found the reason for this turnabout in the power that parties of the Left achieved in the immediate postwar years, in Britain and especially in Scandinavia where reform was most pronounced. The article questions this political pedigree by examining the origins of postwar reforms, in this case in Sweden, in the ambitions and interests of the bourgeois parties and by analyzing the initial reluctance of the Social Democrats to follow the new reforming initiatives coming from the parties of the middle classes.

The Electoral Consequences of Welfare State Reforms for the Danish Social Democrats

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Arndt
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The Social ◽  
Electoral Defeat ◽  
Immigration Issue ◽  
Welfare Reforms

AbstractThe article demonstrates that the big electoral defeat for Danish social democracy in the 2001 elections was not solely the consequence of the immigration issue, but of the welfare state reforms implemented by the Social Democratic government (1993–2001). Social democratic core voters opposed the reforms since they broke with the decommodification paradigm and turned away from social democracy. Against the arguments from the literature, the left-wing competitor Socialist People’s Party’s could not benefit from the reforms given its function as supporter party. Rather, the reforms caused the realignment of social democratic core voters with the Liberals and the Danish People’s Party having expanded their voter base in 2001 as a consequence of the welfare reforms.

The Crisis is Over but Frugality Must Continue: Post-consolidation Fiscal Policy and the Dualisation of the Swedish Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 152-171
Author(s):  
Simone Scarpa
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Consolidation Phase

Previous research has predominantly analysed the retrenchment of the Swedish welfare state from a long-term perspective, examining restructuring processes from the financial crisis of the early 1990s until recent years. This study instead takes a short-term perspective and focuses on welfare state developments in the post-consolidation phase, after the recovery from the crisis. The aim is to investigate how the fiscal policy reforms introduced during the recovery years forced subsequent governments to continue on the path of "frugality". Specifically, the paper focuses on the effects of austerity politics on two policy domains: income redistribution through the benefit and tax system and the municipalities' role as social service providers and employers. The analysis indicates that the Swedish model is showing increasing signs of dualisation due to the gradual segmentation of prior universalistic welfare programmes and to the worsening of working conditions in the social service sector.

Broadcasting achievements: Social media practices of Swedish parties in-between elections through the lens of direct representation

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Svensson ◽  
Uta Russmann ◽  
Andaç Baran Cezayirlioğlu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Platform Comparison ◽  
Cross Platform ◽  
Incumbent Party ◽  
Media Practices

Inspired by Coleman’s call for a more ‘direct representation’, we address two neglected issues within the field of social media and political communication. We study a non-election period in Sweden (two randomly selected weeks in early 2016) and conduct a cross-platform comparison. The article is based on content analyses of the four prominent social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. We seek to answer the following questions: do parties use social media platforms in-between elections? If so, for what purposes? Do parties use social media to interact in a direct manner with citizens? We focus on three different Swedish parties: the Social Democrats (incumbent), the Feminist Initiative (underdog) and the Sweden Democrats (populist right-wing). Our findings suggest a bleak direct representation in-between elections. Parties are more active on social media platforms during election campaigns. Twitter is the preferred platform, especially by the incumbent party for broadcasting achievements.

A New Blue-collar Force

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Adorf
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Party System ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
German States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alternative For Germany ◽  
The Welfare State

Within a mere five years, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has established itself in the German party system. During the same period, however, it has undergone a significant ideological transformation as well. Initially regarded as a direct competitor to the small-government Free Democrats, the AfD has since adopted the tried-and-tested electoral approach of other rightwing populist actors by embracing welfare chauvinist positions, linking the survival of the welfare state to that of the nation state. In doing so it has made substantial inroads into the blue-collar electorate, in some German states even overtaking the Social Democrats as the preferred choice of the working class.

Shopkeepers and the Swedish Model: The Petty Bourgeoisie and the State during the Interwar Period

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-369
Author(s):  
Tom Ericsson
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
Petty Bourgeoisie ◽  
The Social ◽  
Swedish Society ◽  
Definition Of

When the Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party came to power in 1932, Sweden experienced a turning point in its history. For the first time the role of the Social Democratic Party in the construction of the welfare state became significant. Until the end of the 1910s the Social Democrats had concentrated their primary efforts on the problems of trade union recognition and the struggle for parliamentary democracy. After 1920 the Social Democrats became the largest party, but did not gain political power except for a brief interlude. The concept of the ‘Swedish Model’ has often been used in Sweden and abroad to describe the unique development of Swedish society in the twentieth century. However, historians and social scientists have tended to analyse Swedish society without a clear definition of the very concept, the ‘Swedish Model’.

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