Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden [Paperback]

Peter A. Swenson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195142977 | ISBN-13: 978-0195142976 | Publication Date: September 26, 2002

Captialists Against Markets challenges the conventional wisdom that welfare state builders took their cues from labor and other progressive interests. Instead, Peter Swenson argues, pragmatic social reformers looked for support not only from below but also from above, taking into account capitalists interests and preferences. With original theory and surprising historical evidence, Capitalists Against Markets illuminates the political conditions for greater economic equality and social security in capitalist societies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Capitalists Against Markets highlights the important role played by employers in the creation of the American and Swedish welfare states. In a brilliant and original analysis, Swenson show how employer strategies--solidarism in Sweden and segmentalism in the U.S.--were rooted in each country's economic development and gave rise to distinctive public programs. Adroitly blending theory, history, and politics, Swenson has created a masterpiece of comparative scholarship." --Sanford M. Jacoby, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA

"A thought-provoking and edifying work... [an] ambitious developments.... Swenson turns much conventional thinking on its head."--Comparative Politics

"Capitalists Against Markets is a magnificent follow-up on the author's much acclaimed Fair Shares. In this new book, Peter Swenson proposes a much needed correction to the mainstream--and myopic--focus on the role of labor movements in the making of welfare politics. He offers both rich history and strong analysis of how capitalists helped give shape and form to the welfare state and to labor market policies in Sweden and the United States, two countries that exemplify the welfare state extremes. It is both impressive and path-breaking scholarship, and it will no doubt provoke controversy. It certainly should, as it forces us social scientists to take the politics of capitalists far more seriously than has been our want." --Gosta Esping-Anderson, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

"This is a book of great importance. Marshalling detailed historical evidence, Swenson persuasively challenges the view that employers were uniformly hostile to the creation of the welfare state by showing that this was untrue even in the United States. As an added bonus, it is quite gripping a read." --David Soskice, Research Professor of Political Science, Duke University

About the Author

Peter Swenson is at Northwestern University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195142977
• ISBN-13: 978-0195142976
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,365,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter A. Swenson, (Ph.D., Yale University, 1986), is Yale's C.M. Saden Professor of Political Science. He specializes in the comparative political economy of labor markets and social welfare in Europe and the United States. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on the economic, political and social foundations of social policy and market regulation in developed capitalist democracies.

Among other things, Swenson is the author of two books, Fair Shares: Unions, Pay and Politics in Sweden and West Germany (1989) and Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden (2002). Recently he was awarded the APSA's Follett Prize for best article in politics and history for "Varieties of Capitalist Interests: Power, Institutions, and the Regulatory Welfare State in the United States and Sweden" (Studies in American Political Development, 2004).

His current project, The American Medical Disorder: A Century of Medical Politics in America, turns to the history and political economy of medical reform and medical progress. It covers subjects like medical education and research, the financing and organization of health care delivery through various forms of inisurance, and the evolution of evidence-based regulation of medical decision making. This is part of a larger long-term research project which is comparative in nature, analyzing the shifting interests and coalitions of organized provider, business, and labor groups in the evolution of national health care systems.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars businessmen for socialism, August 6, 2004

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ConsDemo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden (Paperback)

In the early 20th century, the attitude of the capitalist class in Sweden was almost the exact opposite of conventional wisdom. Not only did business organizations welcome the growth of unions, they actually aided in the process. For the most part, they offered at best half-hearted opposition to the expansion of the welfare state and sometimes eagerly backed it.

The Swedish labor market of the early 20th century was perhaps the mirror opposite of what we associate with modern industrial economies. Rather than suffering a labor surplus (high unemployment) the Swedish labor market was suffering a chronic labor shortage, in part because of emigration, to the US and elsewhere. Eager to control the union demands, the lockout was a regular tactic used by Swedish employers associations. If the author is to be believed, they were quite successful at mounting lockouts within industries and sometimes across industries. Fearing the militant unions, the mainstream unions often tacitly approved of the employer tactics.

What runs through the employer strategy is an ingrained fear of competition from other capitalists who would lure employees away from existing employers, or alternately undercut the established companies with lower cost products. Unlike some American employers who attempted to ensure worker loyalty with "welfare capitalism", Swedish employers judiciously rejected the notion of non-wage benefits and were particularly strident in their attempts to curtail the introduction of such benefits by non-compliant employers. They also feared "chiselers" who undercut the sales of the mainstream businesses with lower prices as a result of lower labor costs. Viewed from this perspective, "solidarism" with the state and labor in the form of an array of social benefits financed through broad-based taxation was appealing. Thus the author takes issue with those who claim Sweden's generous welfare state is a result of labor agitation alone, rather he suggests capital was an active and willing promoter.

The author notes similar attitudes among some US business leaders although he doesn't really try to determine why the American capitalists were less inclined to support a similar level of state-financed social welfare. Curiously, the Swedish capitalists in his book seem indifferent to the level of taxation imposed upon them. The failure to address these two points weakens the author's thesis slightly. However, it is still an interesting proposition and one that has plausibility.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Praise for Capitalists Against Markets, December 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden (Paperback)

"Capitalists Against Markets highlights the important role played by employers in the creation of the American and Swedish welfare states. In a brilliant and original analysis, Swenson shows how employer strategies--solidarism in Sweden and segmentalism in the U.S.--were rooted in each country's economic development and gave rise to distinctive public programs. The book takes on both rational choice and social democratic arguments: employers acted rationally, Swenson shows, but their choices were historically constrained and far from being reflexively anti-labor or anti-government, right down to the 1990s. Adroitly blending theory, history, and politics, Swenson has created a masterpiece of comparative scholarship. "

Sanford M. Jacoby, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA

"Capitalists against Markets is a magnificent follow-up on the author's much acclaimed Fair Shares. In this new book, Peter Swenson proposes a much needed correction to the mainstream - and myopic - focus on the role of labor movements in the making of welfare politics. He offers both rich history and strong analysis of how capitalists helped give shape and form to the welfare state and to labor market policies in Sweden and the United States, two countries that exemplify the welfare state extremes. It is both impressive and path-breaking scholarship and it will no doubt provoke controversy. It certainly should, as it forces us social scientists to take the politics of capitalists far more seriously than has been our want."

Gosta Esping-Andersen, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

"This is a book of great importance. Marshalling detailed historical evidence, Swenson persuasively challenges the view that employers were uniformly hostile to the creation of the welfare state by showing that this was untrue even in the United States. As an added bonus, it is quite a gripping read."

David Soskice, Research Professor of Political Science, Duke University