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Swedish Corporatism in Social Welfare Policy, 1986–1994: An Empirical Examination
Author(s) -
Hoefer Richard
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1996.tb00381.x
Subject(s) - corporatism , politics , welfare state , welfare , social policy , political science , positive economics , government (linguistics) , value (mathematics) , empirical examination , demographic economics , sociology , political economy , economics , law , classical economics , linguistics , philosophy , machine learning , computer science
Recent literature suggests that Swedish politics is decorporatizing. This article reports on the results of a survey of Swedish interest groups active in social welfare policy, administered in 1986 and 1994. The results cast considerable doubt on the decorporatization thesis. Little change is discernible between the two surveys on indicators of key corporatist behaviours on the part of interest groups and government. The immediate goal of the article is to provide evidence that the Swedish system is not, in fact, decorporatizing to the extent cited in recent literature. A larger aim, however, is to push the study of corporatism in a more empirical direction. The value of the theory will be enhanced if researchers are more precise about what it means and what behaviours should follow from it.