Creating Social Democracy: A Century of the Social Democratic Labor Party in Sweden

This study of Swedish social-democracy, unique in the unparalelled length of time in government for any socialist party outside the former communist bloc, provides an excellent portrait of the forces that shaped Sweden's unique social model. Social democracy, despite attempts to re-theorise it in the current period, may perhaps best be described as a moment in history rather than a coherent political ideology and this book provides a very useful insight into the factors that came to make Sweden the mekka of social democrats until the late 1980's. A pragmatic mix of socialism, trade-unionism and, later, corporatist functionalism created one of the most effective industrial democracies in the world (although not without embarrassing and shameful cul-de-sacs along the way such as eugenics and sterilisation programs). It also provides a sobering picture of the dangers and auto-destructiveness posed to democratic socialist movements by the "Third Way" trojan horse that weakened the SDAP to the point that it lost government for only the second time in its history in the last general election. Translated from the Swedish original, the book is a product of self-reflection and analysis from within the Swedish social-democratic context and I would recommend it to anyone studying social-democracy, labour history or political economy- or, of course, Swedish or Scandinavian history.

My husband got superhappy when he got the book. He can't wait to read it! Only thing that was missing om the hardcover is the thin papercover that normally wraps hardcover books for protection.