POLS 354 Welfare States in Comparison

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POLS 354 Welfare States in Comparison

• Lecture 8
• Social Democratic States Sweden

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Lecture outline

• Introduction
• Recap social democratic welfare states
• The Peoples Home
• The economic crisis and beyond
• Summary

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Introduction

• Sweden is usually portrayed as the closest
  approximation of a social democratic welfare
  state
• Like the conservative welfare state, it is
  designed to produce class solidarity but it also
  aims for equality
• It uses expenditures to generate cross-class
  support and taxation to redistribute income
• Despite recent conservative and neo-liberal
  criticism of Swedens high social expenditure,
  the countrys economic performance is equal to or
  better than many other developed nations, and
  retrenchment has been limited

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2. Recap social democratic states

• Equality, universalism
• Socializing the costs of reproduction
• Individual autonomy
• Full employment
• Dual breadwinner
• Scandinavian countries Sweden, Norway, Denmark
• High de-commodification
• Low stratification

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3. The Peoples Home

• Protestantism, individualism and equality
• Universalism and equality of outcome
• Explaining Swedish welfare left hegemony vs.
  pluralist accounts
• Cooption of middle and agrarian classes
• Universalism and solidarity Goodin and Le Grand
• The middle classes will be less likely to support
  welfare programs that do not directly benefit them

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The high quality standardized solution
(Rothstein)

• Public monopolies discouragement of and
  hostility to the private sector
• Participation of middle classes in public
  services
• Insignificant role of private provision and
  financing
• High proportion of public sector employment,
  especially for women

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Redistributive universalism

• National social insurance schemes have high
  replacement rates
• Social assistance is a municipal responsibility
• Very high gross social expenditure
• Highly regressive taxation claws back benefits
  to the better-off, reducing net social
  expenditure

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Full employment and active labor market policy

• Sweden enjoyed full employment until the late
  1980s
• Highest spending on active labor market programs
  (ALMPs) in the OECD 2 of GDP
• ALMPs have strong training orientation
• ALMPs are popular amongst the unemployed
  contrast with liberal welfare states

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• Womens integration into the labor force as
  equals
• Sex-role equality movement 1960s
• Trade union support for gender equality to
  protect wage rates
• Very high employment to population ratios for
  women, though they have lower hours

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Supporting work and care

• Extensive public child care
• Generous public maternity leave 360 days at 80
  of pay for first 8 years
• Sickness benefits
• Lone parent benefits 1937
• Comparatively generous
• Low poverty among lone parents

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Race, migration and welfare

• Pro-natalism and eugenicism fear of population
  decline in the 1930s
• Restricting migration to Nordic origin
• Recent increases in migration
• Generous treatment of asylum seekers rapid
  entitlement to benefits
• Multiculturalism and integration

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3. The economic crisis and beyond

• Bad economic performance in the early 1990s
• Unemployment
• 1991 Conservative victory
• Limited quantitative retrenchment
• Social Democrats returned to power in 1994
• Swedish response to recession increasing
  spending
• Automatic stabilizers

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The choice revolution

• Criticisms of universality inability to cater
  for differences
• Shift towards private provision and financing
• Middle classes exiting the welfare state
• The choice dynamic (Blomqvist)
• Decentralization increasing local discretion,
  reducing universalism? (Cox)
• Changes to Swedish welfare have been more
  qualitative than quantitative

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The new patriarchy (Ginsburg)

• Gendered-occupational segregation
• Women are predominantly employed in the public
  sector
• Shift to private provision threatens public
  service employment
• As worker-parents, women depend on the welfare
  state for services
• Retrenchment and privatization disproportionately
  affect women

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OECD 2004

• Swedens economic position is sound
• Demographic shifts will be costly
• Workforce growth supplied by migration
• Problems with labor productivity
• High proportion of those employed who are not at
  work
• Working hours declining
• Shift towards public sector employment
• Falling retirement age
• Weaker labor productivity of migrants

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• The problem of expectations pressure for
  increased spending
• Interaction between leisure and taxation
• Benefits from increased labor market integration
• Swedens demographic problems may be smaller than
  other states

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5. Summary

• Sweden produces social solidarity without
  extensive institutionalized stratification
• Swedens public welfare state has very different
  implications for race and gender than liberal and
  conservative models
• Critics have questioned the sustainability of
  Swedish welfare and have criticized the
  ideological emphasis on universalism
• Recent qualitative changes may have long-term
  implications for solidarity

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Next weeks readings

• Croissant (2004)
• Jomo (2001)

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Questions for discussion

• In what ways can universalism promote middle
  class loyalty to the welfare state?
• Critically evaluate the notion that Swedens
  welfare state is highly de-commodifying.
• What does Ginsburg mean by the new patriarchy?
• How might the choice revolution undermine the
  redistributive character of Swedish welfare?

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OECD 2004

• Why cant Sweden be complacent about its social
  policy?
• What is effective dependency and why does the
  OECD think it is important for Sweden?
• What problems does the OECD claim that increased
  leisure creates?
• What are the likely effects of globalization on
  Swedish welfare?