The Transformation of the Swedish Model: Economic Ideas, Distributional Conflict, and Institutional Change

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of the Swedish model of economic regulation from an ideational perspective. While the majority of arguments about the decline of the Swedish model have focused on the role of structural factors, this article looks to illuminate the ideational factors that made possible both the emergence and the transformation of the Swedish model. The article details how, during the 1930s and 1940s, economic ideas provided the Swedish state and its trade union allies with the means to construct the institutions of the Swedish model. By the 1970s, however, Swedish business suffered diminishing returns to continued participation within these institutions and responded to labor's challenges by adopting a two-pronged strategy of withdrawal from and ideological contestation of labor's supporting institutions. The politics of ideas was key in this regard. During the 1980s Swedish business marshaled alternative economic ideas to contest and thus delegitimate existing institutions and the patterns of distribution they made possible. Swedish business thus began the process of overturning the Swedish model long before capital mobility or domestic inflation was ever a problem. By highlighting these factors, the article offers an explanation of the transformation of the Swedish model that stresses the centrality of ideational contestation for understanding institutional change in general.

The Custodians of State Policies Dealing With the Financial Crisis: A Comparison Between France and the US

“…Unable to take credit for the advantages of Keynesian reforms, the elites of the state found themselves branded in the US and UK by a portion of the political class converted to neo-liberal ideas as being responsible for the economic crisis and, more generally, for the bureaucratisation of western societies (Pierson, 1994;Wolf, 2014). In northern Europe, where the welfare state was anchored in a long history, conservative elected officials developed a populist discourse that consisted in labelling elites of the state as responsible for the loss of efficiency of the social democratic model (Blyth, 2001;Palier, 2010). In the French case, finally, the lengthy survival of the myth of the "golden age of the state" (Suleiman & Courty, 18997) and the adoption of a popularised version of neo-liberalism by the state itself (Jobert & Théret, 1994) resulted initially in diffusing critique.…”

Bringing Power Back in: A Review of the Literature on the Role of Business in Welfare State Politics

“…For Sweden, studies by Blyth and by Ryner have documented how the national business federation there shifted its strategy from the 1970s onwards to ideational contestation of the Swedish model, with the goal of delegitimizing its institutions and the associated distributive outcomes (Blyth 2001(Blyth : 2-3, 2002Ryner 2002: 134-170; see also Pontusson/Swenson 1996: 230-231;Svallfors 2015). For Germany, studies by Kinderman (2005Kinderman ( , 2014, Menz (2005), and Speth (2004) document a similar intensification of efforts by business associations to delegitimize social programs and "big government" through a "war of ideas," even though, unlike Swedish employers, German employers' associations did not attack corporatist bargaining.…”

Le modèle universaliste suédois au prisme du libre choix

“…La SAF en particulier mène dès la fin des années 1970 une campagne très virulente en faveur de la privatisation, notamment des services sociaux (Blyth, 2001). …”

“…Dans un même temps, la SAF mène une campagne idéologique virulente contre l'Etatprovidence social-démocrate et souhaite faire advenir un changement systémique (Blyth, 2001), notamment en brisant le monopole des municipalités dans la production des services sociaux. La SAF va ainsi engager deux hommes en 1983 pour créer une entreprise commerciale, appelée Pysslingen, proposant des services d'accueil pour les jeunes enfants.…”