Social Policy Welfare State And Civil Society In Sweden

Social Policy, Welfare State, and Civil Society in Sweden I-II gives a comprehensive account of the global invention of the welfare state, from the far north of the West to the global East and Southeast, and from its social policy origins to the most recent challenges from civil society. This first volume includes four essays, by now minor classics in welfare state literature. "Before Social Democracy: The Early Formation of a Social Policy Discourse in Sweden" set the stage for a research current that shifted from state welfare to welfare mix and civil society. "Working Class Power and the 1946 Pension Reform in Sweden" examined a key thesis in Peter Baldwin's seminal work The Politics of Social Solidarity, and led to a lively polemic among social historians. The third text was first published (as "Sweden") in volume 1 of Peter Flora's magnum opus Growth to Limits: The Western European Welfare States Since World War II. The final essay, "The Dialectics of Decentralization and Privatization," is a path-breaking study of the Swedish welfare state's reconstruction in the 1980s. The second volume covers the period since 1988 - "the lost world of social democracy" - and recent changes in comparative welfare state research and the Nordic Model. This work is an updated and enlarged edition in two volumes of Sven Hort's well-known and wide-ranging dissertation Social Policy and Welfare State in Sweden, published under the author's birth name Sven E. Olsson in 1990. This first volume contains the original four essays of the first edition. In praise of the new edition: "This is an impressive, comprehensive and knowledgeable contribution to the analysis of the early history and long-term development of the Swedish welfare state. Through a prime focus on reform actors at various stages we are persuasively reminded that there was a history before the ascendance of Social Democracy from the early 1930s, that the Social Democrats played a crucial role in the expansionary phase, and that one must go beyond theories of class politics to get a proper understanding of the evolution and characteristics of the modern welfare state." - Stein Kuhnle, Professor in Comparative Politics, Hertie School of Governance and University of Bergen "The development of the Swedish welfare state is often sketched in fairly simplistic terms. Professor Hort's analysis remains the most penetrating of the complex and fascinating interplay between politics, social forces, and economic development that explains much of the intricacies of the system that eventually emerged." - Gunnar Wetterberg, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Sven E. O. Hort is Professor in Social Welfare at the College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Korea. He is an alumnus of Lund University. In Sweden he taught sociology at Linneaus and Sodertorn universities. Currently he is the chief editor of the Swedish journal Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys and a deputy editor of European Societies. With Stein Kuhnle he is the author of "The Coming of East and South-East Asian Welfare States," Journal of European Social Policy (2000)."

Social Policy, Welfare State, and Civil Society in Sweden, volume I-II, gives a comprehensive account of the global invention of the welfare state, from the far north of the West to the global East and Southeast, and from its social policy origins to the most recent challenges from civil society.

Social Policy, Welfare State, and Civil Society in Sweden I-II gives a comprehensive account of the global invention of the welfare state, from the far north of the West to the global East and Southeast, and from its social policy origins to the most recent challenges from civil society. This second volume aims at the civil society challenge to the welfare state since 1988, or "the lost world of social democracy." It opens with an overview of the three generations of comparative welfare state research, from Harold Wilensky to Gosta Esping-Andersen, Theda Skocpol and onwards. Inspired by the work of Norbert Elias, Karl Polanyi, and Stein Rokkan as well as by Benedict Anderson, Tom Nairn and Elinor Ostrom, the civilizing process and embeddedness of the welfare-industrial complex are scrutinized. The author's key concepts are imagined welfare communities, and common pool resources in (civil) society and state. Privatization trends in Sweden - from take-off to bonanza - and domestic resistance to the powers of the day are then lucidly assessed, and the simultaneous deconstruction and reconstruction of a once famous welfare state is elaborated with force and vigour. Finally, the cross-national Scandinavian differences are outlined. The five essays of volume II emphasize the historical relativity of social welfare institutions and argue against all developmental metaphysics. This work is an updated and enlarged edition in two volumes of Sven Hort's well-known and wide-ranging dissertation Social Policy and Welfare State in Sweden, published under the author's birth name Sven E. Olsson in 1990. The first volume contains the original four essays and covers the formation and evolution of the Swedish welfare state 1884-1988. In praise of the new edition: "The publication of this book in 1990 marked a turning point in understanding of how the Swedish welfare state should be conceptualized both from a historical and comparative perspective. Its combination of sophisticated theoretical perspectives and in-depth empirical analysis became a model for many later studies of welfare state regimes. Added to the timely new edition is a 'volume II' sequel that updates and deepens the analysis of how the Swedish welfare state has fared during the era of globalization. This new edition is a 'must read' for everyone interested in the history and future of welfare state regimes." - Bo Rothstein, August Rohss Chair in Political Science, University of Gothenburg In praise of the first edition: ..". takes us beyond simple analyses, emphasizing the deep historical roots of social democracy in Sweden and considering the role of ideas, the organization of politics, and the activities of social classes other than labor in building and securing Swedish social policy. Olsson's book presents a comprehensive overview of the development of the Swedish welfare state and a detailed consideration of several key episodes of welfarestate development." - American Journal of Sociology "This is a very scholarly and broad ranging analysis of the postwar Swedish welfare state ... which is invaluable for comparative policy analysis." - Critical Social Policy ..". essential reading for sociologists and political scientists." - Contemporary Sociology Sven E. O. Hort is Professor in Social Welfare at the College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Korea. He is an alumnus of Lund University. In Sweden he taught sociology at Linneaus and Sodertorn universities. Currently he is the chief editor of the Swedish journal Arkiv. Tidskrift for samhallsanalys and a deputy editor of European Societies. With Stein Kuhnle he is the author of "The Coming of East and South-East Asian Welfare States," Journal of European Social Policy (2000)."

- American Journal of Sociology"This is a very scholarly and broad ranging analysis of the postwar Swedish welfare state ... which is invaluable for comparative policy analysis."--Critical Social Policy" ... essential reading for sociologists and political scientists." - Contemporary Sociology

El autor hace un análisis histórico del desarrollo de la social democracia y la política social en Suecia a lo largo de la centuria 1880 a 1980y el papel que han desempeñado ambas en la actual situación del estado de bienestar y en la actual política social en dicho país.

Sweden, as many other prosperous nations, is presently reassessing its national goals, political culture and collective identity. Newer groups in society are demanding equal treatment, and others whose struggles for recognition are older and unwon, are successfully mobilizing support for political change. Social democratic political hegemony has been eroded and other new political forces are now reinterpreting past political ideas and methods of action and a need for historical perspective. This book analyses the history of Swedish civil society. Social movements and interest organizations have played crucial roles in Sweden. Their history is also Swedish history and concerns struggles for political recognition and welfare state development and cutbacks. Theoretical developments within sociology, social psychology, public choice and political science are combined to enrich the analysis. Some of the theoretical elements used in this book are organizational waves of development, organizational life cycles, political opportunity structure, and topologies of collective action organizations. The book analyzes Swedish civil society history from the Midas to the 1990s. Swedish civil society history is divided into six periods. The role played by collective action organizations in the important developments in politics, society and economy in this one hundred and fifty year period are described, compared and analyzed. The primary focus is the impact of change brought about by these developments on collective action organizations.