Folkhemmet
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Folkhemmet (Swedish: [ˈfɔ̂lkˌhɛmːɛt], "the people's home") is a political concept that played an important role in the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish welfare state. It is also sometimes used to refer to the long period between 1932 and 1976 when the Social Democrats were in power (except for a brief period in 1936 when Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp from the Farmers' League was prime minister) and the concept was put into practice, but also works as a poetic name for the Swedish welfare state. Sometimes referred to as "the Swedish Middle Way", folkhemmet was viewed as midway between capitalism and socialism. The base of the folkhem vision is that the entire society ought to be like a family, where everybody contributes, but also where everybody looks after one another. The Swedish Social Democrats' successes in the postwar period is often explained by the fact that the party managed to motivate major social reforms with the idea of the folkhem and the national family's joint endeavor.[1][2]
The Social Democratic leaders
History
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Conservative corporatism
The term is thought to have its roots in
Social democracy
Per Albin Hansson introduced the concept on 18 January 1928, saying that Sweden should become more like a "good home", this being marked by equality and mutual understanding. Hansson advocated that the traditional class society should then be replaced by "the people's home" (folkhemmet). In his famous speech on 18 January 1928, Hansson expressed the Social Democrats' view of society:[5]
The good home knows no privileged or misfortuned, no favorites or undesired. There no one looks down on the other. There none try to gain benefits on the others expense, the strong do not oppress and plunder the weak. In the good home reigns equality, kindness, cooperation, helpfulness.
After Hansson, the same policy was continued until the late 1960s by Prime Minister Tage Erlander. According to the Social Democrats, the people's home is a democratic welfare society that operates on the principle of common spirit and community. This, they say, requires social policies such as universal health insurance, child benefits, an occupational pension scheme and primary school. Political opponents often did not oppose these reforms per se, but warned of their cost and tax tightening.[6]
The concept came at a time when
Good and easily available education, even to higher levels, was considered particularly important for building the new society. As a result, Sweden became one of the first countries in the world to offer free education at all levels, including all public universities, along with several new universities founded during the 1960s. Free universal health care was provided by the state, enacted in 1947–55, along with numerous other social services.
Myrdal's influence
During the 1930s, Human population planning became an important part of folkhemmet. Alva and Gunnar Myrdal's 1934 book Crisis in the Population Question inspired a radical and progressive policy for how to deal with a declining population. A number of changes took place in this period including expansion of the public sector, Wigforss' economic policies, Gustav Möller's reform of the pension system, and Gunnar Myrdal's housing policies. Alva and Gunnar Myrdal suggested a series of programs designed to increase population growth by increasing the freedoms and rights of childbearing women and children.
In the 1940s and 50s, old, worn down houses that served as the overcrowded dwellings of the lower class were demolished. Instead, people were offered modern housing with bathrooms and windows to let light into every room, so called
In popular culture
- In 1983, Magnus Uggla recorded the album Välkommen till folkhemmet.[7]
See also
- Welfare in Sweden
- Volksgemeinschaft[8][9]
- Nilsjohan, a Swedish manufacturer whose products were associated with the Folkhemmet movement
References
- ^ Norbert Götz. “The Modern Home Sweet Home.” The Swedish Success Story? Kurt Almqvist and Kay Glans (eds). Stockholm: Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, 2004. 97–107, 300–302.
- ^ Norbert Götz. Ungleiche Geschwister: Die Konstruktion von nationalsozialistischer Volksgemeinschaft und schwedischem Volksheim. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2001.
- ^ Välfärdsstaten och dess styrningsmekanismer, 1977, in Per Nyström: I folkets tjänst, Ordfront 1983.
- ^ Sten O. Karlsson: Det intelligenta samhället, Carlsson Bokförlag (20019
- ^ Olle Lönnaeus (21 September 2009). "I valkampen blir alla folkhemskramare" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
- ISBN 951-1-04170-3.
- ^ "Välkommen till folkhemmet" (in Swedish). Svensk mediedatabas. 1983. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ISBN 978-91-88858-32-0
- ^ Götz. Ungleiche Geschwister: Die Konstruktion von nationalsozialistischer Volksgemeinschaft und schwedischem Volksheim