Scandinavian Social Economics Since 1930: A Bibliographic Note

Abstract

October 1983 issue of the Review of Social Economy [pp. 137 151] contained a bibliographic note on Social Economics 1850-1930. majority of the titles listed there were rare titles, found in the holdings of the University of Kansas library, and consisted to a large degree of treatises written in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Chiefly theoretical in nature, they represented a preface to the experi? ment in social democracy undertaken by the Scandinavian lands begin? ning in the early 1930s.1 It was precisely in the 1930s that the paths of the Nordic and non Nordic nations diverged. From that time forward, the working class parties of Scandinavia may be said to have differed from similar parties in other countries by their dominant and natural status in govern? ment. [Castles, p. x] One observer has said of Swedish social economic policy (which the other Nordic lands also adopted): The Swedish Social Democrats were the first socialist party in the world to be able to increase gradually the power of the state in economic life without revolution or large-scale nationalization. [Childs, p. 18] This was not full-scale socialism but a middle way between unfettered capitalism and socialism. [Childs, pp. 19-20; see also Koblik, p. 332.] 1983 article contained a list of largely theoretical works that led up to the social economic experiment undertaken by Scandinavia's social demo? cracies. This article is designed as a sequel and complement to the former, with some very significant differences. A review of the monograph literature available from 1850 to 1930 reveals stark contrasts to those books published since 1930. Most notable among them is that the English language is much more strongly represented for the recent time period, especially since the Second World War. Thus, the following list of titles may prove more useful to the North American scholar than did the previous one. Next, the majority of titles here are not theoretical in