Sweden before and after Social Democracy: A First Overview

Abstract

This is a first report on a research project entitled ‘Sweden Under Social Democracy (1932–76)’. It aims at probing into the effects a uniquely long Social Democratic parliamentary reign have had on the present ‘welfare state’. It is argued that a causal analysis such as this has to start from a historical study and that correlational methods have little value. Sweden is therefore compared with other Western societies before and at the end of the Social Democratic era, with a view to finding out in which areas and the degrees to which Sweden was different. Two alternative hypotheses are presented: (1) The Parliamentary Hypothesis, according to which societal development is determined by parliamentary politics and from which an increasing differentiation between Sweden and countries with other parliamentary configurations is to be expected; (2) The Class Hypothesis, according to which social development is determined by the extraparliamentary social forces reflected in parliamentary politics and reproduced rather than transformed by the latter, unless there is a rupture in the political institutions. Since no such rupture occurred in Sweden in 1932 nor after, from this hypothesis it could be expected that Sweden ought to have remained in about the same relation to other Western states. A first test is then made, with reference to aspects of the social conditions of the population, capital-labour relations, educational, social, and tax policies. No definite conclusions are reached, but the evidence casts reasonable doubt on the Parliamentary Hypothesis and indicates the fruitfulness of the Class Hypothesis as a guide to future explorations.