Running out of road? Dilemmas and issues for the British Labour Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party in their search for a ‘modern’ welfare state narrative

Abstract

Following significant electoral defeats in 2010, both the British Labour Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) have been re-considering their approach to the welfare state. This article outlines some of the key themes of social democracy and social democratic social policy before discussing the evolution of the latter in both Sweden and Britain. The paper explores the cumulative effect of the revisionist approaches adopted by both parties over time which has resulted in a distancing from a welfare state strategy based on equality, universalism and publicly provided services. It is concluded that both parties now have little road left to construct a modern welfare state narrative that reflects “core” social democratic principles.

Contesting the austerity and “welfare reform” narrative of the UK Government

“…With the return of a Conservative majority in the UK Parliament following the 2015 General Election, this programme of austerity continued as did the UK Government's welfare reform narrative as it constructed an increasingly hostile environment for social security recipients (Gamble, 2015;Edmiston et al, 2017). The Labour Party's vacillation between opposition toand grudging endorsement (albeit with qualifications) ofthese policies did little to disrupt the UK Government's conservative-liberal-market narrative or actual package of austerity and welfare reform (Gamble, 2015;Page, 2014;Wiggan, 2015a).…”

“…It is noticeable that aspects of the Scottish Government's (proposed) divergence in welfare governance is reminiscent, at least in part, to the orientation of the UK New Labour Governments. The belief in (if not the vigour of support for) social investment as key part of modernised social democracy is, of course, something the SNP share with New Labour (Bevir, 2005;Leggett, 2007;Page, 2014). This raises a question we cannot settle here, of whether the Scottish Government's championing of a radical, yet credible Nordic welfare imaginary is primarily to mobilise and cohere support (Ryner, 2007: 64) and which in practice becomes a Scottish variant of the Third Way (Paterson, 2015;Mooney and Scott, 2015).…”

“…The Labour Party's vacillation between opposition to -and grudging endorsement (albeit with qualifications) of -these policies did little to disrupt the UK Government's promulgation of a punitive liberal-market narrative (Gamble, 2015;Page, 2014). At UK level discussions of poverty and lack of employment have become framed around the notion that state welfare institutions foster 'welfare dependent' attitudes and behaviour amongst individuals ' (Author, 2015b).…”