Collective Solidarity or Individual Responsibility: Theoretical Approaches to the Study of the Swedish Welfare Model
Abstract
For decades, the research on social policy used Swedish experience in this field as an example of such a high level of state’s commitment to welfare provision that it allowed realizing the general social rights and satisfying the needs of special groups of population. The aim of this article is to problematize two theoretical approaches – the power resource approach and the capability approach – that examine the welfare state in Sweden as, on the one hand, a result of the class mobilization and, on the other, as a factor behind high levels of individual well-being. The authors review the theoretical foundations of both approaches, and the opportunities and limitations embedded in their explanatory models, as well as apply them to the transformation of the social policy in Sweden during the last twenty years. Key words: power resource approach, capability approach, Sweden, social policy.References
Alkire S. Operationalizing Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to Human Development: A Framework for Identifying ‘Valuable’ Capabilities. D.Phil. thesis. Oxford: Oxford University, 1998.
Anderson B. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 2006. 3rd ed.
Bagchi A. Freedom and development as end of alienation // Economic and Political Weekly. 2000. December 9.
Deneulin S., Mcgregor A. J. The capability approach and the politics of a social conception of wellbeing // European Journal of Social Theory. 2010. Vol. 13.
Economist. “Sweden — the new model”. 2012. Oct 13th.
Erikson R. Description on inequality: The Swedish approach to welfare research // The Quality of Life / Ed. by M. Nussbaum, A. Sen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Erikson R., Åberg R. Welfare in Transition. A Survey of Living Conditions in Sweden 1968–1981. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Esping-Andersen G. Jämlikhet, effektivitet och makt: socialdemokratisk välfärdspolitik // Socialdemokratins samhälle: SAP och Sverige under 100 år / Ed. by K. Misgeld, K. Molin, K. Åmark. Stockholm: Tiden, 1988.
Esping-Andersen G. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Flora P., Heidenheimer A. J. (Eds.) The development of welfare states in Europe and America. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1981.
Hobson B., Fahlén S. Competing scenarios for European fathers: applying Sen’s capabilities and agency framework to work-family balance // The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 2009. Vol. 624.
Hobson B., Fahlén S., Takács J. Agency and capabilities to achieve a work-life balance: A comparison of Sweden and Hungary // Social Politics. 2011. Vol. 18.
Hobson B., Olah L. Birthstrikes? Agency and capabilities in the reconcilication of employment and family // Marriage and Family Review. 2008. Vol. 39.
Holden C. Decommodification and the workfare // Political Studies Review. 2003. Vol. 1.
Hort S. E. O., Therborn G. Welfare and citizenship: Politics and social policies // The Riley-Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology / Ed. by Amenta, E. New York: Riley-Blackwell, 2012.
Kangas O. Social Policy in Settled and Transitional Countries: a Comparison of Institutions and Their Consequences. 1999. [http://www.lisproject.org/publications/ liswps/196.pdf], (05.12 2006).
Kings L. Till det lokalas försvar: civilsamhället i den urbana periferin. Lund: Arkiv, 2011.
Korpi W. The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism: Work, Unions and Politics in Sweden. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
Korpi W. The Democratic Class Struggle. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.
Korpi W. Power, Politics and State Autonomy in the Development of Social Citizenship: Social Rights During Sickness in Eighteen OECD Countries since 1930 // American Sociological Review. 1989. Vol. 54.
Korpi W. Power resources and employer-centered approaches in explanations of welfare states and varieties of capitalism: Protagonists, consenters, and antagonists // World Politics. 2006. Vol. 58.
Korpi W., Palme J. The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and Poverty in the Western countries // American Sociological Review. 1998. Vol. 63.
Lewis J., Guillari S. The adult worker model family, gender equality and care: The search for new policy principles and the possibilities and problems of a capabilities approach // Economy and Society. 2005. Vol. 34.
Marshall T. H. Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950.
Menon N. Universalism without foundations? // Economy and Society, 2002. Vol. 31.
Nairn T. The enabling boundary // London Review of Books. 2007. Oct 17th.
Nussbaum M. Women and Human Development: The Capability Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
O’Сonnor J., Olsen G. M. (Eds.) Power Resource Theory and the Welfare State: a Critical Approach. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1998.
Ostrom E. Governing the Commons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Palme J. Pension rights in welfare capitalism : the development of old-age pensions in 18 OECD countries 1930 to 1985. Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research, 1990.
Pierson P. When Effect Becomes Cause: Policy Feedback and Political Change // World politics. A Quarterly Journal of International Relations. 1993. Vol. 45.
Pierson P. Dismantling the welfare state ? // New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Reinfeldt F. The New Swedish Model: A Reform Agenda for Growth and the Environment // The London School of Economics and Political Science. 2008. February 26. [http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/7391/a/99239], 09.01.2013.
Robeyns I. An unworkable idea or a promising alternative? Sen’s capability approach re-examined. Discussion Paper 00.30. Center for Economic Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2000.
Robeyns I. The capability approach: a theoretical survey // Journal of Human Development. 2005. Vol. 6.
Rothstein B., Vahle Westerhäll L. Bortom den starka statens politik? Stockholm: SNS förlag, 2005.
Sen A. Inequality re-examined. New York and Oxford: Russell Sage Foundation, 1992.
Sen A. Capability and well-being // The quality of life / Ed. by M. Nussbaum, A Sen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Sen A. Development as Freeedom. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Sen A. Rationality and freedom. Cambridge Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 2002.
Wennemo I. Sharing the Costs of Children: Studies on the Development of Family Support in the OECD Countries. Stockholm, Swedish Institute for Social Research, 1994.
