Swedish Model or Swedish Culture?
In: Critical review: an interdisciplinary journal of politics and society, Band 4, Heft 4, S. 569-590
ISSN: 0891-3811
The extent to which the "Swedish model" is an intricate web of historically rooted sociocultural patterns is explored. A comparative historical analysis of the relationships between Swedish welfare policies & institutions in areas like labor market relations & family policy, on the one hand, & the Swedish work ethic, individualism, & family structure, on the other, suggests that the Swedish welfare state, which has become so firmly associated with the past fifty years of Social Democratic hegemony, was made possible by & still depends on cultural proclivities that are of ancient origins. From this perspective, the relevance & usefulness of the Swedish experience for reformers in Eastern Europe lies less in its being a transportable model & more in indicating the crucial but complex relationship between culture & political reform, & the awesome challenge that the (re)construction of political & economic culture poses. AA