This statue (which is supposed to be of Hjalmar Branting) was in a small park
right across from the Trade Union Federation Headquarters in Stockholm.

(If you right click and save the picture to your hard drive, you can see it twice as big.
Left click, and... Branting-Stalin graffiti is just the beginning.)

Summary of Swedish Social Institutions Class
July 16, 2003

Our class provided an overview of how the Swedish Welfare System, the Folkhem, provides and cares for its citizens, especially the less fortunate. Sweden's 'Middle Way' is a mix of socialism and capitalism in the spheres of economics, politics and sociology. Most of the services that we studied, however, focused specifically on the Folkhem aspect. We also learned about migration control, the municipal government, and the political parties. Our studies were based on visits from political representatives, visits to operating social institutions, class lectures, and a textbook entitled Sweden: a Pocket Guide: Facts, Figures, and Advice for New Residents.

In our first class, Dr Sullivan explained her beliefs about the development of the Folkhem, which literally translated means 'People's Home.' It was meant to be a national 'home' that took care of its citizens. The professor believed it was based on a sense of collectivity, not an emphasis on the work an individual citizen gives to society. Based on the literature of an ultraconservative named Mauricio Rojas, she explained the creation of the Folkhem through: the ethnic homogeneity of Swedes, a strong national state of Social Democrats, industrial expansion, the high number of peasants as opposed to urban inhabitants, and a lack of class differences. The Swedish economy was based on mass assembly or 'Fordism.' Since Fordism receded as a manufacturing technique, the Swedish economy was hurt and therefore its welfare state began to decrease. Another factor that threatened the welfare system was Sweden's entrance into the European Union. The professor said Mauricio Rojas works in a think tank at www.timbro.com.

Dr. Sullivan explained that Swedish culture and society is based on rationality, planning, and organization. Alva Myrdal, who received the Nobel Peace prize in 1982, was a major figure in the rationalization of domestic life. Another person who figures prominently in the concept of Folkhem, Friedrich Engels, used the concept of 'the Little Life' in the home. So a major trait of the folkhem has been to take care of people's domestic needs, such as providing day cares and paid maternity leave. Another part of Swedish culture is Jante Lagen- that the needs of society are more important than personal achievement. The feeling of teamship is very important to this.

The textbook begins by saying that "for millenia" and "at the beginning of the nineteenth century, differences between rich and poor were great."1 During industrialization, most of the peasants emigrated to America or went to work in the cities. The large number of workers put the labor movement and the Social Democrats in power. The latter group created the Folkhem to end social and economic differences. Under previous governments, there had been small gains such as voting rights and land reforms, but the people generally lived in poverty. Lately the socialists have had as much parliamentary power as the non-socialists. Historically the Social Democrats maintained governments through coalitions with the Agrarian Party or Communists. The Lapps- arctic nomads and Finns have always been a significant minority in northern Sweden, according to the text. During the middle ages Germans, English, and Belgians emigrated to Sweden. Nowadays one third of immigrants (out of 900,000 total immigrants) come from outside Europe, including a number of refugees. Unlike Mauricio Rojas, Dr. Sullivan and I do not believe that the new immigrants play a major role in the success or failure of the welfare state. This is determined rather by political and economic factors.

Our first excursion was to Uppsala's H'gan's day care center. The center's materials, decorations, and toys had a high quality and it seemed well run and organized (even though the toys were messy). The daily outlines were also really well ordered and regimented. The children had to participate in cleanup and gain a feeling of togetherness through their teamwork. Unlike in other countries where perhaps lessons were taught on a blackboard, they put effort into teaching through playing educational games. There was no discipline section in the handbooks the center gave us, because Swedish childcare centers are supposed to be run without a punishment system like "time-outs." She said they try to be more "academic" and 'pedagogic' in guiding the children. It is important to look the child in the eyes and hold them in order to talk to them. Also interesting was how they try to focus the children on "projects," with the "water theme" the center was running when our class visited. As a signatory to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (unlike the USA at the time of writing), Sweden places alot of emphasis on caring for its children. The day care center is open during the parents' working hours from 8-18:00. In addition, it is in high demand as its services are used by more than 90% of Swedish parents. There are children of various ethnicities at the center as well, which tries to integrate them. While the parents have to pay a fee, which is usually around $80 a month depending on income, most of the center's revenue comes from the municipal government.

The most impressive part of the library that we saw the next day was its enormous size. It seemed really spacious, not only with its large main hall with bookcases, but also the other rooms we visited, such as the children's room and conference rooms. Also noticeable was how new and clean it seemed, in comparison to some American town libraries, which are housed in aging buildings. The library is funded mainly by the municipal government. The administrator we spoke with believed that if the government decides to downsize its library services, it will do this by not hiring new staff when the older ones retire. It must be said that the Bloomsburg University Library in the USA has some advantages over the Uppsala municipal library. The Uppsala library has a queue system for using computers where clients must "log" a time beforehand. As a number of the clients are absent during their selected time, there are also a number of computers that are "locked off" for use. This system seemed inefficient while Bloomsburg has more than enough computers to satisfy demand. Bloomsburg University library is open until midnight, while the Uppsala library is open only until 18:00 (many American town libraries are open later). Dr. Sullivan later related that the library claims this is due to insufficient funds for the staff to work later. I believe instead, that it is common for many places in Sweden, such as restaurants and museums, to close earlier than in other industrialized countries. It must be remarked in conclusion that Uppsala municipality offered a quite satisfactory public library.

In our class we also saw two documentaries, one about social problems and a second with a chronology of the development of the Folkhem. The first, produced by Stefan Jarl, focused on the lives of a group of drug users and prostitutes. Yet the film was meant to go beyond simply drug abuse and talk about poverty in Sweden which is not usually shown in the press or to visiting students. It also meant to reveal problems from class differences. For example, one young person "play fighting" with his friends in a subway station remarked that "rich fellows don't come down here to fight." The deaths, broken homes, and assaults on several of the characters raised the question of how the Swedish Folkhem could allow people to "fall through the cracks" in the system to such hardship. Perhaps the director hoped that when he brought these problems to the attention of the public, they would desire to strengthen the Folkhem so these problems would not continue. The second documentary showed historical filmclips from the history of the Folkhem. It showed a peaceful workers' march that was attacked by police, interviews with and pictures of Social Democratic ministers, and political advertisements. The interview where Per Albin Hannson said to a man "We will help you start a healthy business with the Folkhem" may have been reassuring for petit-bourgeois and townspeople who had lost work and family businesses after the great depression. It may also have attracted middle class support for the Social Democratic Workers' Party. The conservatives' advertisement from the 1970's about how the Folkem had created unhappy teachers and a lack of classroom discipline was especially humorous because of the actually high level of education for the time. This was especially amusing because of the high regard Swedes had at the time- and still have today- for the Folkhem. In fact, political discontent is often shown for those who would reduce the welfare system as the next clip showed. It was surprising to see a workers' gathering showing frustration at a group of Social Democratic politicians for recent reductions in the welfare system. Both these documentaries showed, in one way or another, the possibilities for the media to influence public opinion.

In the dark, wood panneled conference room of the Uppsala Municipal Building we had an informative metting with Lena 'kerberg, a staff member from the municipal government. Most striking from her talk was the amount of privatization which has occurred in the last 5 to 15 years in the Swedish economy. This was in contrast to the older material I had read about the Swedish 'Middle Way,' in which government enterprises play no small role. The privatization has included parts of the railways, power plants, telephone service, and even the post office, which is not privatized in the United States. Dr. Sullivan pointed out later that if one polls ten Swedish citizens, he or she would discover that none of them believes the post service works better now than before the privatization. The professor says that privatization is becoming a common phenomenon in the European Union, which Sweden joined in 1995. 'kerberg said that privatization of nonatomic power plants occurred because they were unprofitable under the Swedish government. This is confusing because a few weeks later a guest speaker to our class explained that Sweden was privatizing those businesses which were profitable; therefore private firms would be able to operate them successfully, while other, unprofitable businesses would remain with the state. To the question of why a private business would operate a power plant better than a public enterprise, 'kerberg replied that she did not know and that it was controversial. We learned that the biotechnical and pharmaceutical industries, the hospital, Uppsala university and the municipality are the largest enterprises in the area (the last three are public). In fact, the public sector constitutes a very significant part of the Swedish economy- around 30% of Gross Domestic Product. This also shows that Sweden is also continuing to move in the direction of a service economy. Uppsala, like other areas, levies an average tax of about 30%. Therefore, on average, 20% of a person's income goes to municipal taxes and 10% goes to taxes at the county level (Uppsala is located in the county of Upplands). In turn, 79% of the municipalty's revenues come from taxes, 10% are from fees, charges, service and contract sales, and 6% are from national grants. The vast majority of the revenues goes to education. 57% of revenue goes to personell costs. Many of the politicians are salaried "volunteers," which means they take calls at home, while a few are professionals, which get a wage salary for work time. A large number of the politicians at the municipal level are elected and make decisions, while the civil servants simply implement those decisions, which made it seem rather democratic. Also there is no mayor, but rather a chairman who heads various municipal committees. Of course, this does not mean the municipal government will be entirely free of bureaucracy as in other countries. Currently, the Social Democrats are the largest group in the municipal council, with 27 members. The second largest municipal party in the council is the Liberal Party, with 16 members. In the 2002 national elections, the Social Democratic Party received 40%, V'nsterpartiet received 8.3%, the Conservatives received 15.1%, and the Liberal Party received 13.3% of the vote. As the largest party in the national government, the Social Democrats form a coalition with the Communist Party or Vansterpartiet. The second largest party nationally is the Conservative Party, which was recently renamed the 'Moderate Party.' The first political guest speaker to our class came from this party.

It was very interesting to hear the Conservative speaker because Sweden is a leftist-oriented country compared to others. This was evident even from the way the speaker tried not to make statements too far to the right for the Swedish public's support. Instead, he attempted to portray the Moderate Party as 'progressive conservative' as he called it. For example, he began his speech by saying that 1909 was a very special year which other parties do not emphasize. In that year the Conservatives were in the government and passed many reforms such as the general voting rights act and the first steps in workers' rights. I pointed out from readings in Swedish history that 1909 was also the year of the first general strike, with 300,000 participants and that these legal gains were concessions to the workers. He did not attempt to refute this. The speaker said that the welfare state was only possible due to the economic work of wealthy industrialists, which were the original supporters of the Conservative Party. He said the welfare state was not possible, before 1920. (1920 was the year of the first Socialist government, and of course the Social Democrats would disagree with the last two statements of the Conservative speaker.) He explained the recent downturn in the Swedish economy and implied the need for a reduction in the welfare state. The speaker said as crude oil prices increased and unlike Norway, Sweden did not have oil reserves, Sweden's foreign trade-a very important part of the economy- was hurt. He gave the following political reasons for slow economic growth:1) high taxes on the rich- that is, around 50% for the highest tax bracket- lowered motivation for achievement, 2) the devaluation measures of the central bank during times of high inflation, 3) education being less competitive than in the past, particularly in the sphere of technology and services. He said the latter may be true because technology jobs aren't as high paying because of taxes, as they would be in other countries. Of course I do not agree with his reasons because people may still try to 'achieve' even if they don't become millionaires. India has the highest number of universities in the world, with very competitive education, even though the technology and services industries of western countries are better. He also said the feeling of collectivity makes people feel that they 'will get an apartment and a car because someone will always do it for you and someone else will fix your problems.' Dr. Sullivan afterwards disagreed and felt that people were not lazy. Of course, I doubt Sweden would be such a modern, healthy country if many people really felt this way. In fact a later visit to the unemployment office showed that people usually receive grants in return for their agreement to work when it is offered to them by the office. If people really do loaf off the system, Dr. Sullivan believed that it should be reformed to account for its problems, not dismantled. In differing his party from the Social Democrats, the Conservative speaker said his party was anti-class. The Socialists make laws to favor one class, while his party is for all the classes. Of course, if his party represented the interests of the upper class, that is exactly what he would want the mass of lower class citizens to think. The speaker said that his party is mostly favorable towards the European Union and the European Monetary Unit. But he said he was cautious because the European Central Bank may become too powerful and not give the Swedish economy any independence, for example if the government decided on devaluation. Many Swedes, including leftists, are worried that the European Union may acquire a political, governing nature, a possibility I believe is likely if the member nations sew their economic relations seamlessly together. The speaker said that one advantage of the Euro would be a lack of speculation over devaluation, which is sometimes a difficulty in Sweden. On the other hand he pointed out that the British Pound is even more healthy and stable than the Euro. While the Conservative speaker described the Folkhem as a luxury which was provided by the big industrialists, I believe that in fact its creation was due to the failure of big industry to regulate the economy. This failure led to the great depression in Sweden, as well as in other countries. The Social Democrats were the party that was willing to create the Middle Way for the benefit of the working and middle classes, at the expense of big business.

The second political representative, named Seppo Laine was from V'nsterpartiet, which means literally the 'Left Party.' He listed 4 main elements of the former Communist Party, describing it as 1) a Socialist Labor party that supports the workers' interests, including workers' control of their jobs and of the economy, 2) a Feminist organization that wants equal pay for women's work, 3) an Environmental party that fights the short term interests of businesses to hurt the environment, and is against nuclear power, 4) an International party that wants to help refugees and fight racism as well as the European Union. He said the first objective had been partially fulfilled in Sweden where there are labor contracts and regulations, and participation in the factories' management. In fact a labor representative usually serves on corporate boards of directors. The issue of nuclear power plants was a decisive factor in elections in the 1970's, where the Agrarian party won for standing against its usage. Mr. Laine believed that General Insurance should be based on the idea that those who have a lot of resources should give to those who need them. General Insurance includes the spheres of Social Welfare, Medicine, and Unemployment. An important issue for the Left Party is the 6 hour work day. The speaker mentioned some experiments in Finland that showed that under some conditions, technology had developed enough to the point where work could be streamlined into a 6 hour day. As production works now, he said, a lot of time is wasted during the workday and people use 'sick days' when they don't need them. This shows that the system could be rationalized to be more productive even with a 6 hour workday. Well, I believe that it is a real phenomenon that in early industry perhaps a 10 hour workday was used to be productive, but after new inventions this was no longer necessary and society has progressed to an 8 hour workday. It is a real question of in what spheres and under what conditions a 6 hour workday will be possible. It is doubtful whether this could be instituted in all branches of production, such as farming. Mr. Laine also felt strongly against Sweden joining the European Monetary Unit. He believed that nations should freely and independently make economic ties. The Euro, he said, was based on pure market views, instead of democratic governing principles. The workers would find it difficult to have a say in the European economic system. In find, he believed the European Union was involved in the reductions in the Swedish Welfare system. The EU made resolutions and put pressure on Sweden- as on other countries- to privatize nationally owned businesses, such as the post office and railways. Dr. Sullivan suggested that the hospitals and local services may continue to be publicly run because they are owned by_the municipal government. Also in joining the EU, Sweden had to lower its highe_t marginal tax bracket down to 50% (before, it had been a higher level for the highest tax bracket).

After his speech, we had a class discussion. Dr. Sullivan talked about Olof Palme, a former Social Democratic Minister, who was assassinated in 1986. We learned that many people had criticized him for his leftist international views. He had been against U.S. hegemony in Latin America, against the Vietnam War, and he also maintained close relations with Cuba. One argument the EU uses for privatization is that there should be competition at the European level and that makes national business entities 'superfluous.'

Our final representative was Emma Ahlen from the Social Democrats (SAP). She took a strong stance in favor of joining the EMU, which is the majority viewpoint in the SAP. Because Sweden is already a member of the European Union, she saw joining the Euro as a natural step. Ahlen also believed that it would create a stable currency for Sweden and eliminate speculation on inflation or devaluation. This would create stronger international business ties. It would also help the Swedish economy, which already relies on exports due to its small population size of 8 million. A Dutch student mentioned that prices increased after the introduction of the Euro. While the SAP representative said that it is just normal for people to complain about changes, Dr. Sullivan noted that prices rose in most countries after the introduction of the Euro. Ahlen also mentioned her belief in the superiority of 'open market forces' to deal with economic problems, which was surprising to hear from a Socialist. She said that national businesses were being privatized to fit into this concept. But if the Swedish people did not desire a specific measure of privatization- such as local hospitals- then it would not occur. She described briefly the history of her party in creating the Folkhem which was meant to care for people. The Ahlen also said she supported womens' and workers' rights. She said that the coalition with Vansterpartiet was successful, although the EMU was their largest source of political disagreements. While she did give out several pamphlets, the major thrust of the representative's speech was for Sweden to gain entry into the European Monetary Unit. She had also studied in Germany and felt it was important for Sweden to become more a part of Europe. It was also important to develop programs to integrate the new waves of non-European immigrants. Perhaps the Welfare State would have to be reformed or reduced, the SAP representative believed it would continue because it had the support of the people. While her talk was not uplifting in regard to the Folkhem, it was quite interesting in that, as the main traditional party in Swedish politics, the SAP represents the most decisive group in the future of Swedish politics. This will decide the future of the Swedish Folkhem as well as of the nation.
*1 note from p. 17 of textbook.