The Age of Social Democracy

This is the history of how two countries on the northern edge of Europe built societies in the twentieth century that became objects of inspiration and envy around the world. Francis Sejersted, one of Scandinavia's leading historians, tells how Norway and Sweden achieved a rare feat by realizing grand visions of societies that combine stability, prosperity, and social welfare. It is a history that holds many valuable lessons today, at a time of renewed interest in the Scandinavian model. The book tells the story of social democracy from the separation of Norway and Sweden in 1905 through the end of the century, tracing its development from revolutionary beginnings through postwar triumph, as it became a hegemonic social order that left its stamp on every sector of society, the economy, welfare, culture, education, and family. The book also tells how in the 1980s, partly in reaction to the strong state, a freedom and rights revolution led to a partial erosion of social democracy. Yet despite the fracturing of consensus and the many economic and social challenges facing Norway and Sweden today, the achievement of their welfare states remains largely intact.

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I hope that every member of the shadow cabinet reads this book. -- Vernon Bogdanor, New Statesman Historians generally overlook modern Scandinavian history, but Scandinavia's remarkable social stability and prosperity in a century of European turbulence merits much more attention than it has received. If only to fill this gap, this history of the development and demise of 20th-century Norway's and Sweden's Scandinavian models is highly welcome. The richly detailed work evaluates intertwined economic, political, and cultural history to show how in the 1930s, Norway and Sweden assembled durable farmer-labor coalitions and avoided totalitarian temptations... [The Age of Social Democracy] fills a huge gap in English-language work on Scandinavia, and will prove highly useful for comparative scholarship on the development of industrial democracies and welfare-state politics more generally. -- "Choice

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Francis Sejersted, one of Scandinavia's leading historians, is former chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (the Peace Prize Committee) and current chairman of the Norwegian Freedom of Expression Foundation. The author of many books, he is a senior researcher at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo and a former professor at the University of Oslo.

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Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 The Many Faces of Modernization--The Scandinavian Solution--Three Phases--National Characteristics--Overview of the Book PART I: 1905-1940: Growth and Social Integration CHAPTER 1: Dreaming the Land of the Future 15 Norsk Hydro--Science and Modernization--Industrialization, a Natural Process for Sweden--Norway Follows Hesitantly--Emigration and Industrialization--The Norrland Debate--The Norwegian Concession Laws--Electricity, the Basisfor Technological Modernization--War and Structural Problems--Thrust forSocialization--Consolidation of Two Different Structures--Rationalization--Technocracy--Dreaming the Land of the Future CHAPTER 2: National Integration and Democracy 50 The Question of Political Democracy in the Period around 1905--Mobilizing the Public--Training for Democracy--Toward an Integrated School System in Norway--Contrasting the Two Countries--Karl Staaff and the Question of Suffrage in Sweden--Arvid Lindman and the Question of Universal Suffrage--The Difficult Road to Parliamentarianism--Gunnar Knudsen and State Capitalism--Currents of Antiparliamentarianism--The Farmers and Modernization--Farmers on the Offensive: Norway--Farmers on the Offensive: Sweden--Crisis Settlement in Both Countries--Women and Civil and Political Rights--The Integration of Minorities: The Sami--The Integration of Minorities: Refugees from Germany--National Integration and Democracy CHAPTER 3: Assistance for Self-Help 99 The Conceptual Basis for Social Policy--A Great Preventive Project--Health Insurance--National Pension Plans--Unemployment Insurance--Population Crisis?--The Politics of Sterilization--Assistance for Self-Help CHAPTER 4: Revolution or Reform 122 The Last Great Popular Movement--Working-Class Culture--Marxist Rhetoric and Reformist Practice--An Indistinct Policy--From One's Own Home to the People's Home: The Labor Movement and the Land Question--Hjalmar Branting--The Big Strike of 1909--The Party Is Split--Martin Tranm?l--Worker Scandinavianism--How Radical?--"A Peculiar Legalization Activity"--The Level of Conflict Escalates--The Solidarity Game Is Established--Per Albin Hansson and the "People's Home"--Johan Nygaardsvold and the People's Party--The Expansionism of the Crisis Policy as Ideology--Revolution or Reform CHAPTER 5: Distance and Proximity 173 Distance--Proximity--World War I--An Expanded Home Market?--A Nordic Defense Alliance? PART II: 1940-1970: The Golden Age of Social Democracy CHAPTER 6: Cooperation in a Menacing World 185 Not the Same War--The Cold War--Still Not the Same War?--The Internal Danger and Surveillance--A New Drive for a Nordic Customs Union--SAS: A Success Story--Despite Everything, a Flourishing Collaboration--Cooperation in a Menacing World CHAPTER 7: "The Most Dynamic Force for Social Development" 205 Class Society in Transformation I--Class Society in Transformation II--"The Most Dynamic Force for Social Development"--The Vision of the Atomic Age--Sweden: A Winner Nation--The Wallenberg System--Swedish Labor Market Policy--The Norwegian State and the Labor Market--Focusing on Natural Conditions--To "Play Wallenberg" in Norway--An Attempt to Create a Norwegian Knowledge Industry--Successful Industrial Policy?--The Social Democratic Urban Landscape--TheSuburban Towns--Who Can Save the City?--The Triumph of Reason CHAPTER 8: The Crowning Glory 241 Technocracy and the Welfare State--Children and the Family--The Radicalism of the Myrdals--The Era of the Nuclear Family--The Housewife Contract under Pressure--The Struggle over the Compulsory General Supplementary Pension (ATP)--Agreement on Social Security--Why Standard Security?--The "Evangian" Health Policy--Swedish Health Policy--Good Family Housing--Social Democracy's Happy Moment CHAPTER 9: What Kind of People Do We Need? 267 Sweden and Norway, One School-Nation--A Break with the Past

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