Swedish intellectual thought on inequality and a ‘welfare world’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal’s solution to global inequality was to move Beyond the Welfare State (1960) and national boundaries to create a ‘welfare world.’ Built on a vision to globalize or scale-up the Swedish approach, Myrdal’s proposal was rejected by both international technocrats and impoverished nations. This article examines the Swedish intellectual tradition on inequality, considering both how it contributed to the emergence of the Swedish welfare state and later to Myrdal’s welfare world. By examining the roots of Myrdal’s proposal, as well as its international reception, this article contributes to several different strands of intellectual history. First, it illustrates how dissonance about a concept such as inequality can emerge when its use is context dependent. Second, the paper explores how an idea that is purported to be international in nature can fail to make sense or ‘travel’ in the international realm, e.g. the ‘non-globalization’ of a concept.