Securing Social Gains in, Against and Beyond the State: The Case of Denmark’s “Common Housing”

Abstract

ABSTRACTPublic housing is a public sector that has been severely affected by privatization policies. Not so in Denmark, however, where public housing is not provided directly by the State but is run by independent housing associations: the “common housing” sector. This sector is the outcome of a compromise between the social-democratic movement and liberal-conservative parties in the 1920-30s. The social-democrats were politically too weak to implement their “municipal socialism” programme, which included (municipal) State-owned housing. This weakness, however, has in fact proven itself to be strength in the face of recent State-led privatization and mercantilization schemes. This experience problematizes the assumptions underlying the historical construction of the welfare State and its role in stewarding resources that are put in common, particularly in the sphere of housing. Instituting the common beyond the direct reach of the State is a lesson that can be learnt from the demise of social-democratic welfare statism.