From Democratic Socialism and Rational Planning to Postmodern Identity Politics and Market-Orientation

Abstract

This article deconstructs the ideological development of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) and the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP). The SDP and SAP favoured democratic rational regulation of the economy by the state and worker organisations to optimise societal production costs from the 1920s onwards. This was in line with their identity as democratic socialists. It did not mean only a reformist relationship to capitalism, but also adapting to Kautskyanism, Austro-Marxism, “functional socialism” and logical empiricism. These ideas were complemented with a positive attitude towards “mixed economy” and “markets” in the 1980s. The postmodern fragmentation of the labour movement’s identity was compatible with the rise in its faith in the market and the abandonment of Marxism by the SAP and the SDP by the end of the 20th century. This happened after they had failed to introduce a New International Economic Order based on Keynesian democratic economic regulation.