SPP139 The "Swedish Model" of Public Policy

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. Steven Saxonberg, Ph.D. (lecturer)
PhDr. Jana Válková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Libor Musil, CSc.
Department of Social Policy and Social Work – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Thu 19. 2. to Fri 15. 5. each even Wednesday 14:00–15:40 U23; and Wed 18. 2. 14:00–17:40 U43, Wed 25. 2. 13:40–15:50 U43, Wed 4. 3. 14:00–17:40 U43, Wed 11. 3. 13:40–17:40 U43, Wed 22. 4. 13:40–15:50 Aula, Wed 29. 4. 14:00–17:40 Aula, Wed 6. 5. 13:40–15:40 Aula, Wed 13. 5. 13:40–15:40 U41
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students should have a basic understanding of how the Social Democrats were able to acheive such hegemony in Sweden. They should also be able to analyze the basic dynamics behind the Sweden welfare state and its most recent changes.
Syllabus
  • Intro lecture about the course, social democratic dominance
  • Seminar on social democratic dominance, lecture on the people’s home and Keynes, Swedish style
  • Seminar on the People’s home, Lecture on the Rehn-Meidner model and labor negotiations
  • Seminar on labor market, Lecture on corporatism
  • Seminar on corporatism, lecture on family policy
  • Seminar on family policy, Lecture on retrenchment
  • Seminar on retrenchment
  • Seminar on final papers
Literature
  • Tilton, Tim The Political Theory of Swedish Social Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press) chahpters 8, 9 11
  • Rothstein, Bo Social classes and political institutions : the roots of Swedish corporatism (Uppsala : Maktutredningen, 1988)
  • Saxonberg, S. “The Swedish Model is Doing Well Despite Neo-Liberal Attacks” Problemy Polityki Spolecznej vol. 7, 2004.
  • Saxonberg, S. “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same? The Swedish Model after the Center-Right Electoral Victory in 2006” forthcoming in Problemy Polityki Spolecznej, nr. 11, 2008.
  • Pempel, T. J. Ed., Uncommon democracies : the one-party dominant regimes (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1990)
  • Ginsburg, Norman Divisions of Welfare (London: Sage, 1992), ch. 1 & 2.
  • Williamson, Peter J. 1989. Corporatism in Perspective: An Introductory Guide to Corporatist Theory (Sage) selected chapters.
  • Larsson, Torbjörn & Bäck, Henry, Governing and governance in Sweden:The social democratic state : the Swedish model and the bureaucratic problem of social reforms (Lund : Studentlitteratur, 2008)
Assessment methods
Students will write a short paper at the end of the course where they reflect on the Swedish model and discuss what they think are the advantages and disadvantages of the model as well as what lessons the Czech Repulic (or their home country) could learn from the Swedish experience. The paper should be about 4 pages (around 2000 words).
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2010, Autumn 2010.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2009, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2009/SPP139