¹ Some of the ideas here were first presented at the conference on “The Welfare State in Transition”, Bergen, 24–27 August 1989.I am grateful to Stein Kuhnle, the organizer of the conference, for this opportunity and to those participants who offered more or less bracing comments and criticisms: Francis Castles, Robert Erikson, Maurizio Ferrera, John H. Goldthorpe, Olli Kangas, Walter Korpi, Ivar Lødemel, John Myles, Claus Offe, Robin Stryker and Göran Therborn.

² His criticism is in Olsson, Sven E., “Working-Class Power and the 1946 Pension Reform in Sweden: A Modest Festschrift Contribution”, International Review of Social History, XXXIV (1989), pp. 287–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ For this contextualization, see Baldwin, , “The Scandinavian Origins of the Social Interpretation of the Welfare State”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31 (1989), pp. 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For specific instances of this methodological revision: Doyle, William, Origins of the French Revolution, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1988), part 1;Google ScholarBlackbourn, David and Eley, Geoff, The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Oxford, 1984);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Baldwin, Peter, “Social Interpretations of Nazism: Renewing a Tradition”, Journal of Contemporary History, 25 (01 1990), pp. 5–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Most generally, Reddy, William M., Money and Liberty in Europe: A Critique of Historical Understanding (Cambridge, 1987), ch. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ Cobban, Alfred, The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1964).Google Scholar

⁵ “The ‘welfare state’ is one particular outcome of demands that logically flow from the position in which wage earners find themselves.” Gösta Esping-Andersen, , “Power and Distributional Regimes”, Politics and Society, 14 (1985), p. 227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ “Labour movements have tended to strive for institutional structures which unify as large sectors of the population as possible into the same institutional contexts, and the Right has favoured attempts to divide the population through the creation of separate programmes and institutions for different sectors and groups. […] [S]ocialist labour movements attempt to create ‘institutional’ welfare states, in which politics assumes as natural a place in the distributive processes as the market and the family. Bourgeois forces, in contrast, strive for ‘marginal’ types of social policies, where public policy is appropriate only when the market and the family fail in their natural role as providers for the individual.” Gösta Esping-Andersen and Walter Korpi, “Social Policy as Class Politics in Post-War Capitalism: Scandinavia, Austria, and Germany”, in Goldthorpe, John H. (ed.), Order and Conflict in Contemporary Capitalism (Oxford, 1984), pp. 181, 185. Similarly, Esping-Andersen, “Power and Distributional Regimes”, p. 224.Google Scholar

⁷ “[T]he Scandinavian model [of the welfare state] is inextricably linked with the strength of the Social-Democratic parties and the trade union movement.” Lars Nørby Johansen, “Welfare State Regression in Scandinavia? The Development of the Scandinavian Welfare States from 1970 to 1980”, in Else øyen, (ed.), Comparing Welfare States and their Futures (Aldershot, 1986), pp. 129–130.Google Scholar “[T]here is no doubt that social democracy has been the leading force behind Scandinavian welfare state development […]” Esping-Andersen, , Politics Against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power (Princeton, 1985), p. 156.Google Scholar For Korpi, the degree of working-class organization and the extent of working-class control over the political executive are the variables that explain the power resources collected in workers' hands and thereby the varying fortunes of solidaristic welfare policy. Korpi, Walter, “Social Policy and Distributional Conflict in the Capitalist Democracies: A Preliminary Comparative Framework”, West European Politics, 3 (10 1980), pp. 307–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ Esping-Andersen, , Politics Against Markets, p. 145.Google Scholar

⁹ An example of the continuing importance of the social citizenship concept in the laborist theory is in Korpi, Walter, “Power, Politics and State Autonomy in the Development of Social Citizenship: Social Rights During Sickness in Eighteen OECD Countries Since 1930”, American Sociological Review, 54 (06 1989), pp. 309–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The assertion that social rights and a solidaristic and universalist approach to the welfare state are Socialist conceits is in Esping-Andersen, and Korpi, , “From Poor Relief to Institutional Welfare States: The Development of Scandinavian Social Policy”, in Erikson, Robert et al. (eds), The Scandinavian Model: Welfare States and Welfare Research (Armonk, 1987), pp. 43–45.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Esping-Andersen, , Politics Against Markets, p. 157;Google ScholarEsping-Andersen, and Korpi, , “From Poor Relief to Institutional Welfare States”, pp. 42, 49;Google ScholarEsping-Andersen, , “Politische Macht und wohlfahrtsstaatliche Regulation”, in Naschold, Frieder (ed.), Arbeit und Politik (Frankfurt, 1985), p. 483;Google ScholarEsping-Andersen, and Korpi, Walter, “Social Policy as Class Politics”, p. 185.Google Scholar

¹¹ Olsson, , “Working Class Power”, p. 290.Google Scholar

¹² Similar in its exaggeration is Olsson's suggestion (in footnote 11, p. 291) that “in effect” I regard the Conservatives Hagård and Skoglund as two Swedish Beveridges.

¹³ Baldwin, , The Politics of Social Solidarity: Class Bases of the European Welfare State, 1875–1975 (Cambridge, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴ Esping-Andersen, , “Politische Macht und wohlfahrtsstaatliche Regulation”, pp. 474–477Google Scholar, “Power and Distributional Regimes”, pp. 231–234, and Politics Against Markets, p. 156.

¹⁵ Olsson, , “Working Class Power”, p. 291.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Accounts of accounts of the welfare state are legion. I give my own in the introduction of The Politics of Social Solidarity, but readers can equally well consult Alber, Jens, Vom Armenhaus zum Wohlfahrtsstaat (Frankfurt, 1982), eh. 2;Google ScholarMyles, John, “Comparative Public Policies for the Elderly: Frameworks and Resources for Analysis”, in Guillemard, Anne-Marie (ed.), Old Age in the Welfare State (London, 1983)Google Scholar, and Köhler, Peter A., “Entstehung von Sozialversicherung: Ein Zwischenbericht”, in Zacher, Hans F. (ed.), Bedingungen für die Entstehung von Sozialversicherung (Berlin, 1979).Google Scholar

¹⁷ If this is a portent of things to come, the most brilliant recent work on the welfare state, Ewald's, FrançoisL'état providence (Paris, 1986)Google Scholar, takes a history-of-ideas approach that owes very little to a social interpretation.

¹⁸ Hatje, Ann-Katrin, Befolkningsfrågan och välfärden: Debatten om familjepolitik och nativitetsökning under 1930- och 1940-talen (Stockholm, 1974), pp. 178–183;Google ScholarRausing, Lisbet, “The Population Question: The Debate over Family Welfare Reforms in Sweden, 1930–38”, Europäische Zeitschrift für Politische Ökonomie, 2 (1986)Google Scholar, and Kälvemark, Ann-Sofie, More Children of Better Quality? Aspects of Swedish Population Policy in the 1930's (Uppsala, 1980), pp. 55–57.Google Scholar Also Myrdal, Alva and Myrdal, Gunnar, Kris i befolkningsfrågan (Stockholm, 1934), pp. 202–203.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Before the war, the working class as working class had received seven times the public monies earmarked for farmers. By 1963, this ratio had been reversed. Christoffersen, Henrik, Det offentlige og samfundsudviklingen (Copenhagen, 1978), pp. 104–106;Google ScholarDich, Jørgen S., “Udviklingen af skatte- og tilskudspolitikken siden 1939: Et bidrag stil forklaring af de politiske kraefter in Danmark”, Økonomi og politik, 39 (1965), pp. 243–249.Google Scholar

²⁰ The Politics of Social Solidarity, chs. 3, 5.Google Scholar

²¹ His claim that the Agrarian Party was important in these reforms is one he asserts, but does not elaborate. In any case, it is a suggestion that I can only welcome as a contribution to my overarching point, that the time has come to move away from a myopically monocausal fixation on the Social Democrats.

²² Esping-Andersen, and Korpi, , “From Poor Relief to Institutional Welfare States”, p. 49Google Scholar, and Esping-Andersen, , Politics Against Markets, p. 157.Google Scholar

²³ See note 10.

²⁴ On universalism as a key characteristic of the Social Democratic/Labour welfare state: In Scandinavia: Erikson, , The Scandinavian Model, pp. vii–viii, 41–43;Google ScholarKorpi, , “Social Policy and Distributional Conflict in the Capitalist Democracies”, p. 303Google Scholar, and Hartmann, Jürgen, “Social Policy in Sweden (1950–80)”, in Girod, Roger et al. (eds), Social Policy in Western Europe and the USA, 1950–80 (New York, 1985), p. 95.Google Scholar In Britain: Marwick, Arthur, Britain in the Century of Total War (Boston, 1968), p. 343Google Scholar, British Society Since 1945 (London, 1982), pp. 50–51Google Scholar; Sked, Alan and Cook, Chris, Post-War Britain: A Political History, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth, 1984), pp. 38–39;Google ScholarShragge, Eric, Pensions Policy in Britain: A Socialist Analysis (London, 1984), p. 42;Google ScholarThane, Pat, Foundations of the Welfare State (London, 1982), p. 267Google Scholar, and Abel-Smith, Brian, “The Welfare State: Breaking the Post-War Consensus”, Political Quarterly, 51 (01–03 1980), p. 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Similarly for France: Jallade, Jean-Pierre, “Redistribution and the Welfare State: An Assessment of the French Socialists' Performance”, Government and Opposition, 20 (Summer 1985), pp. 344–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In more general terms: Parker, Julia, Social Policy and Citizenship (London, 1975), p. 14CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Alber, Jens, Vom Armenhaus zum Wohlfahrtsstaat (Frankfurt, 1982), p. 48.Google Scholar The only recognition I have found that universalism was far from a working class or union demand is in Therborn, Göran, “Neo-Marxist, Pluralist, Corporatist, Statist Theories and the Welfare State”, in Kazancigil, Ali (ed.), The State in Global Perspective (Paris, 1986), p. 224Google Scholar, and Therborn, , “The Working Class and the Welfare State”, in Kettunen, Pauli (ed.), Det nordiska i den nordiska arbetarrörelsen (Helsinki, 1986), p. 13.Google Scholar Faint traces of this recognition in Gøsta Esping-Andersen, “Citizenship and Socialism: De-Commodification and Solidarity in the Welfare State”, in Rein, Martin et al. (eds), Stagnation and Renewal in Social Policy (Armonk, 1987), pp. 90–91.Google Scholar

²⁵ On flat-rate benefits as particular egalitarian and socialist: State Seierstad, “The Norwegian Economy”, in Ramsøy, Natalie Rogoff (ed.), Norwegian Society (Oslo, 1974), pp. 82–84;Google ScholarCastles, Francis G., The Social Democratic Image of Society: A Study of the Achievements and Origins of Scandinavian Social Democracy in Comparative Per spective (London, 1978), pp. 72–73;Google ScholarAndersen, Bent Rold, “Rationality and Irrationality of the Nordic Welfare State”, in Graubard, Stephen (ed.), Norden: The Passion for Equality (Oslo, 1986);Google ScholarMyles, John, Old Age in the Welfare State: The Political Economy of Public Pensions (Boston, 1984), pp. 38–41;Google ScholarEsping-Andersen, , Politics Against Markets, p. 158Google Scholar, n.ll; Ogus, A. I., “Great Britain”, in Köhler, Peter A. et al. (eds), The Evolution of Social Insurance, 1881–1981 (London, 1982), p. 203;Google ScholarJohansen, Lars Nørby, “Denmark”, in Flora, Peter (ed.), Growth to Limits: The Western Welfare States Since World War II (Berlin, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 300–301;Google ScholarJessop, Bob, “The Transformation of the State in Post-War Britain”, in Scase, Richard (ed.), The State in Western Europe (London, 1980), pp. 66–67;Google ScholarRitter, Gerhard A., Social Welfare in Germany and Britain (Leamington Spa, 1986), p. 169;Google ScholarGunsteren, Herman van and Rein, Martin, “The Dialectic of Public and Private Pensions”, Journal of Social Policy, 14 (04 1985), p. 131;Google ScholarPaci, Massimo, “Long Waves in the Development of Welfare Systems”, in Maier, Charles S. (ed.), Changing Boundaries of the Political (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 193–194Google Scholar, and Offe, Claus, “Democracy Against the Welfare State? Structural Foundations of Neocon-servative Political Opportunities”, in Moon, J. Donald (ed.), Responsibility, Rights and Welfare: The Theory of the Welfare State (Boulder, 1988), p. 222.Google Scholar

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²⁷ On the latter, the source is Hockerts, Hans Günter, Sozialpolitische Entscheidungen im Nachkriegsdeutschland: Alliierte und deutsche Sozialversicherungspolitik 1945 bis 1957 (Stuttgart, 1980).Google Scholar

²⁸ Baldwin, , “The Scandinavian Origins of the Social Interpretation of the Welfare State”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31 (1989), pp. 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁹ As I point out in the book, the Swedes here fought out a battle very similar to that which was debated in Britain as the question of a subsistence level of benefit (why treat all on the same terms when this meant giving even the better-off benefits they did not need at the Exchequer's expense?) and in Denmark a decade or so later, when the bourgeois parties insisted (against objections from the Left) on wholly removing means tests so that the middle classes might participate as fully in the welfare state's benefits as the poor.