A new article on La résilience du modèle suédois de welfare dans l’economie mondialisée

A new article by Anders Lindbom and Bo Rothstein in Revue internationale de politique comparée

2006 La résilience du modèle suédois de welfare dans l’economie mondialisée, Revue internationale de politique comparée, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 429–445.

Abstract

We argue that the Swedish welfare state has proven its resilience to globalization and neo-liberalism. Our explanation is that the organization of the welfare state 1) gives the middle class stakes in its maintenance and 2) promotes attitudes of its distributional and procedural justice that translates to support of the welfare state. A transformation to a liberal/residual welfare state is very unlikely. However, the Swedish welfare state is far less resilient towards changes towards a more work-related type of welfare state. Those traits are already there to a much higher degree than is generally acknowledged. The implications of such changes will however hardly be lower female participation in the labor market or dismantled welfare services, i.e. convergence with the conservative welfare state. But groups that are not well established on the labor market, e.g. young people, immigrants and single parents, will be affected.