The social democratic state
Subtitle: the Swedish model and the bureaucratic problem of social reforms
By: Bo Rothstein.
Series: Pitt series in policy and institutional studies
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; Univ of Pittsburgh Pr (Txt)
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Pittsburgh
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
Subjects: Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti.; Bureaucracy -- Sweden.; Sweden -- Politics and government -- 1905-1950.; Sweden -- Politics and government -- 1950-1973.; Sweden -- Social policy.
Description: If one wants to know if politics, and most especially if reformist politics, matters - if, that is, political mobilization can change democratic capitalist societies - then Sweden under the Social Democrats is clearly one of the best empirical cases to study.

Bo Rothstein uses the Swedish experience to analyze the limits a social democratic government labors under and the possibilities it enjoys in using the state to implement large-scale social change. He examines closely two SAP programs, one a success and the other a failure, that attempted to change social processes deeply embedded in capitalist society.

He ties the outcomes of these programs to the structure of the state and hypothesizes that the outcome depends, to a considerable extent, on how administrative apparatuses responsible for implementing each policy are organized. Rothstein concludes that no matter how wisely a reformist policy is designed nor how strong the political party behind it, if the administrative arrangements are faulty, it will fail at the stage of implementation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-226) and index.