The Origins of the Swedish Welfare State
A Class Analysis of the State and Welfare Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2484787 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steve Valocchi (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 189-200 |
| Publication date | 1992-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Problems (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3097037 |
| OpenAlex | W2147457189 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 24 |
This paper uses the Swedish welfare system as a case study to investigate the nature of policymaking in capitalist societies and the relationship between economic and political power in the policy-making process. Although previous explanations accurately point to the role of “open” state structures, agrarian politics, and the rise of the Social Democratic party in the making of the Swedish welfare system, none of these explanations grounds its analysis in the dynamics of capitalist state building in early twentieth-century Sweden. When this is done, the more useful explanation focuses on the role of a fragmented capitalist class building alliances with increasingly polarized agrarian interests in order to stave off economic and political threats from below. These class politics took shape within a state that had historically relied on concessions to "the people" to maintain its legitimacy
Agrarian society · Class (philosophy) · Class analysis · Democracy · Economic system · Economics · Epistemology · Legitimacy · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Social class · Sociology · State (computer science) · Welfare · Welfare state · History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Bienestar social-política social
Basic income in the Swedish legislative debate
Welfare as a Means for Political Stability
Disrupting the Welfare State? Digitalisation and the Retrenchment of Public Sector Capacity
On passports and border controls
Impartial Administration and the Development of a Political Society of Compromise in Scandinavia
Early-life social and health determinants of adult socioeconomic position
Class Political Organizing and Welfare Capitalism
A cultural geometry
Social policy and welfare state in Sweden
Politics against Markets
State Structures and the Possibilities for “Keynesian” Responses to the Great Depression in Sweden, Britain, and the United States
The Politics of Social Policy in the United States
The Transition from Capitalism to Socialism
Labour Mobilization and the Strength of Capital
Ideology and social policy in the mid‐nineteenth century
The origins of the folkhem ideology in Swedish social democracy
Social Democracy vs. Socialism
The Scandinavian Route
"Beyond "State vs. Society
The Foundations of Modern Sweden
The Success of the Swedish Labour Market Policy
Essays in Swedish History
The Social Origins of Liberal Democracy
The Capitalist State and the Origins of National Welfare Policy in Nineteenth-Century Germany
Marxism, Institutional Analysis, and Working-Class Power
Sweden before and after Social Democracy
The Scandinavian Origins of the Social Interpretation of the Welfare State
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,35 |
| Citation span | 1992 - 2025 (34) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |