The Swedish welfare state - more as Prince John than Robin Hood
Screenshot via The Middle Class and the Swedish Welfare State: How Not to Measure Redistribution by Andreas Bergh.
It is popular with the following interpretation of social reality - the welfare state is an institution that takes the money and redistributes from the rich individuals and gives it to the poor ones. The perception is that a higher level of economic equality can be achieved by transferring money and incomes from the upper class and middle-class individuals and taxpayers to working-class, poor, and unemployed individuals.
However, as in the case of Sweden, both private and public studies have shown that the welfare state does not always function like many people think and believe. On the contrary, the current reality is that the Swedish welfare state is more beneficial for middle-class individuals than for others.
This is partly a result of social and economic development where the middle-class is the largest social group in the Swedish society as regarding individuals who are working in the service sector, living in houses, and having longer vacations during summertime.
The welfare state today and in the past
Since the 1990s, the number of welfare states across the world has increased. Partly resulting from the formation of new nations as with the collapses of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and because of globalization impact via economic and technological flows leading to better functioning economies, reducing poverty, and smaller inequalities between countries. Thereby, more governments than before 1990 can afford more welfare programs regarding pensions, social security, and education.
Historically, the welfare state has existed for around 150 years. It was partly a result of the transformation from agricultural to industrial societies in Europe, resulting in urbanization, social problems, and economic transformations. Under the leadership of the conservative politician and chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia and later Germany is often regarded as the world’s first welfare state.
Thereby, it is interesting that one can say that the welfare state, which often is interpreted as being something left-wing, socialist, and even liberal, was historically seen as “a conservative idea”. The Prussian/German welfare state was, in fact, created in order to reduce and encounter liberal and socialist demands for political reforms and changes by providing “free” (meaning tax-subsidized) education, pensions, and social insurances.
Swedish welfare state and liberalism
The modern welfare states as in Sweden have during the last 100 years mostly been developed by liberal and social-democratic politicians and governments. The Swedish welfare state is today often seen as a synonym for social democracy, left-wing and progressive politics but was historically created among others by liberal politicians as the liberal party leader Karl Staff who advocated for the creation of public welfare before, during, and after World War One.
Staff’s vision was that contemporary Sweden as in 1910 should be developed into a modern, liberal and industrial society where citizens would be less dependant on their families, private alternatives, and even on older land-owning nobility and rich peasants. Also, Staff realized that there was a growing working class in cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg, which resulted in poverty and social problems in urban areas.
Most of the contemporary liberals as Staff argued in favor of a “small welfare state” for “the weakest ones in the society”. Here, it is important to remember that Sweden in 1910 and 1920 was still one of the poorest countries in Europe. For Staff, the idea of the welfare state was about modernizing Sweden into an industrial economy with better quality of life, including via government support for public education, pensions, and social insurances.
The legacy from 1970s and welfare expansion
The Swedish welfare state was “small” until the 1960s and 1970s, when it was largely expanded during the political dominance of the social democrats under legendary politicians as Olof Palme. For social-democrats, one aim with an expanding welfare state was to fulfill Marxist ideas about transformation from industrialism to communism but mainly in order to provide larger resources to the working class in Sweden.
Since the 1970s, the welfare state has almost constantly expanded and grew regarding resources, administration, and institutional arrangements. According to different public research in Sweden, the welfare state has a high level of legitimacy, social trust, and civic acceptance.
It is much easier for politicians to go to elections by promising more welfare than to reduce welfare. This partly explains why even the liberal and conservative alliance (Alliansen) that governed Sweden during 2006-2014 was not able and not interested in making larger changes around public welfare because it was seen as a sensitive topic and that reaction from the majority of voters could be strong.
For example, the former Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who started his career as a more classical liberal and neo-liberal by demanding a much smaller government, even communicated how his government created the largest welfare resources in modern Swedish history.
No, Sweden is not a “neoliberal” state and society.
Despite rhetoric about “neo-liberal Sweden” coming both from political left and right, the case is that Sweden’s administration and institutional size is equal to more than 400 government agencies and ministries, with a welfare state with more than 100 programs and systems. Including everything from public employment office, educational support, insurance agency, etc. One of the reasons is that both left-wing and right-wing parties during the 2000s have focused on expanding the size of the welfare state and the overall government for different reasons.
Thereby, one of the results, as both private and government surveys are showing, is that the Swedish welfare state is “middle-classified”, meaning that it mainly benefits middle-class residents more than other ones.
One example of that is parental insurance called “daddy months” (pappamånader) due to gender equality and feminist ideas that the government should support more men staying at home with their children. This benefit is mainly popular and used in “rich” municipalities as Taeby and Danderyd, who are among the top 10 in Sweden regarding income per resident. In practice, it is easier for middle-class parents to stay with their children at home than for working-class parents who need to spend more time working.
Milton Friedman’s Law
When it comes to the modern development of the Swedish welfare state, one can speak about the “Milton Friedman’s Law” or "Directors Law" :
“All public welfare spending in democracies are in the end going to benefit the well-educated middle class at the expense of the poorest and richest ones in the society.”
Both left-wing and right-wing politicians in Sweden often promise more welfare, larger government, and state intervention. This also leads to wrong and hazardous behaviors where politicians promise what they cannot deliver, and citizens expect to get things they cannot receive.
Instead of “more government/money/welfare” attitudes, it would be much better and necessary if more politicians and citizens could provide meaningful and clear proposals about how the current welfare state models, as in Sweden, can be reformed and changed for the future. For example, there are fewer institutions, less bureaucracy, more private initiatives, and cooperative solutions via basic income. It is not only about the limits regarding money and taxation, it is also about morality and existential questions such as from whom the public welfare should exist in the first place?
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