具体描述
This is the history of how two countries on the northern edge of Europe built societies in the twentieth century that became objects of inspiration and envy around the world. Francis Sejersted, one of Scandinavia's leading historians, tells how Norway and Sweden achieved a rare feat by realizing grand visions of societies that combine stability, prosperity, and social welfare. It is a history that holds many valuable lessons today, at a time of renewed interest in the Scandinavian model.
The book tells the story of social democracy from the separation of Norway and Sweden in 1905 through the end of the century, tracing its development from revolutionary beginnings through postwar triumph, as it became a hegemonic social order that left its stamp on every sector of society, the economy, welfare, culture, education, and family. The book also tells how in the 1980s, partly in reaction to the strong state, a freedom and rights revolution led to a partial erosion of social democracy. Yet despite the fracturing of consensus and the many economic and social challenges facing Norway and Sweden today, the achievement of their welfare states remains largely intact.
作者简介
Francis Sejersted, one of Scandinavia's leading historians, is former chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (the Peace Prize Committee) and current chairman of the Norwegian Freedom of Expression Foundation. The author of many books, he is a senior researcher at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo and a former professor at the University of Oslo.
目录信息
Introduction 1
The Many Faces of Modernization--The Scandinavian Solution--Three Phases--National Characteristics--Overview of the Book
PART I: 1905-1940: Growth and Social Integration
CHAPTER 1: Dreaming the Land of the Future 15
Norsk Hydro--Science and Modernization--Industrialization, a Natural Process for Sweden--Norway Follows Hesitantly--Emigration and Industrialization--The Norrland Debate--The Norwegian Concession Laws--Electricity, the Basisfor Technological Modernization--War and Structural Problems--Thrust forSocialization--Consolidation of Two Different Structures--Rationalization--Technocracy--Dreaming the Land of the Future
CHAPTER 2: National Integration and Democracy 50
The Question of Political Democracy in the Period around 1905--Mobilizing the Public--Training for Democracy--Toward an Integrated School System in Norway--Contrasting the Two Countries--Karl Staaff and the Question of Suffrage in Sweden--Arvid Lindman and the Question of Universal Suffrage--The Difficult Road to Parliamentarianism--Gunnar Knudsen and State Capitalism--Currents of Antiparliamentarianism--The Farmers and Modernization--Farmers on the Offensive: Norway--Farmers on the Offensive: Sweden--Crisis Settlement in Both Countries--Women and Civil and Political Rights--The Integration of Minorities: The Sami--The Integration of Minorities: Refugees from Germany--National Integration and Democracy
CHAPTER 3: Assistance for Self-Help 99
The Conceptual Basis for Social Policy--A Great Preventive Project--Health Insurance--National Pension Plans--Unemployment Insurance--Population Crisis?--The Politics of Sterilization--Assistance for Self-Help
CHAPTER 4: Revolution or Reform 122
The Last Great Popular Movement--Working-Class Culture--Marxist Rhetoric and Reformist Practice--An Indistinct Policy--From One's Own Home to the People's Home: The Labor Movement and the Land Question--Hjalmar Branting--The Big Strike of 1909--The Party Is Split--Martin Tranmæl--Worker Scandinavianism--How Radical?--"A Peculiar Legalization Activity"--The Level of Conflict Escalates--The Solidarity Game Is Established--Per Albin Hansson and the "People's Home"--Johan Nygaardsvold and the People's Party--The Expansionism of the Crisis Policy as Ideology--Revolution or Reform
CHAPTER 5: Distance and Proximity 173
Distance--Proximity--World War I--An Expanded Home Market?--A Nordic Defense Alliance?
PART II: 1940-1970: The Golden Age of Social Democracy
CHAPTER 6: Cooperation in a Menacing World 185
Not the Same War--The Cold War--Still Not the Same War?--The Internal Danger and Surveillance--A New Drive for a Nordic Customs Union--SAS: A Success Story--Despite Everything, a Flourishing Collaboration--Cooperation in a Menacing World
CHAPTER 7: "The Most Dynamic Force for Social Development" 205
Class Society in Transformation I--Class Society in Transformation II--"The Most Dynamic Force for Social Development"--The Vision of the Atomic Age--Sweden: A Winner Nation--The Wallenberg System--Swedish Labor Market Policy--The Norwegian State and the Labor Market--Focusing on Natural Conditions--To "Play Wallenberg" in Norway--An Attempt to Create a Norwegian Knowledge Industry--Successful Industrial Policy?--The Social Democratic Urban Landscape--TheSuburban Towns--Who Can Save the City?--The Triumph of Reason
CHAPTER 8: The Crowning Glory 241
Technocracy and the Welfare State--Children and the Family--The Radicalism of the Myrdals--The Era of the Nuclear Family--The Housewife Contract under Pressure--The Struggle over the Compulsory General Supplementary Pension (ATP)--Agreement on Social Security--Why Standard Security?--The "Evangian" Health Policy--Swedish Health Policy--Good Family Housing--Social Democracy's Happy Moment
CHAPTER 9: What Kind of People Do We Need? 267
Sweden and Norway, One School-Nation--A Break with the Past?--What Kind of Equality?--Integration and Normality--Several Dilemmas under the Surface--An Unsuccessful Integration Drive--Marginalized Universities--Swedish University Reform--Norwegian University Reform--The Social Democratic People's Church--Church and Morals--Which Is More Important--Health or Salvation?--What Kind of Human Being?
CHAPTER 10: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy 289
Tage Erlander and Einar Gerhardsen--The Struggle over the Planned Economy in Sweden--The Struggle over the Planned Economy in Norway--A Social Democratic Constitution--Corporatism and Economic Democracy--The New Administrative Corporatism--How Democratic?--The Double Strategy of Business and Industry--An Ideological Counterthrust--Social Democracy as a Consumer Society--Taxation Socialism--Capitalism without Capitalists?--Credit Socialism or Indicative Planning?--An Order in Its Own Right
PART III: 1970-2000: A Richer Reality
CHAPTER 11: A Difficult Modernity 333
A Decade of Conflict--The Social Democrats Reply--The Risk Society--Sweden and Nuclear Power--Norway and Natural Gas Energy--The Nordic Energy Market--Norway Becomes an Oil Nation--Heavy-Handed Discrimination--Sweden Loses Its Leading Position--New Policy: A Turnabout?--Successful Policy?--A Difficult Modernity
CHAPTER 12: What Happened to Economic Democracy? 361
Corporatism under Pressure--Nevertheless, a Change of Model?--Industrial Democracy--Self-determination--Wage Earner Funds--a Radical Move--Weakened Administrative Corporatism--Labor Power for a Better Competitive Edge--Social Democracy in a Globalized Economy--A Weak Milieu of Private Ownership--State Ownership--An Ambiguous Development
CHAPTER 13: From Equality to Freedom 388
The Welfare State under Pressure--The Changing Character of Social Policy--The Hunt for the Lost Sense of Community--The Jewel Is Removed from the Crown--Does Norway Follow Suit?--From an Emigration Society to an Immigration Society--The Establishment of an Immigration Policy--A Political Minefield--The Policy Is Revised--Toward the Two-Income Family--The Great Dispute over the Cash Benefit Plan--Gender Equality Lite--A School for the Weakest--Gudmund Hernes--a Parenthesis--Toward the Dissolution of the Comprehensive School--The Universities and Market Logic--From Equality to Freedom
CHAPTER 14: The Return of Politics 431
Two Perspectives--Is Democratic Power Disintegrating?--A Weakened Party System--New Forms of Participation--Social Democracy's Media System--The Great Release--Threats to Independence--The Media-Biased Society--The Decay of the General Public?--The Youth Rebellion--Feminism--Marxism-Leninism--Constitutionalism Rediscovered--The Return of the Values Debate--Jesus--a Social Democrat?--The Common Good--A Showdown with the Past--The Return of Politics
CHAPTER 15: The Last "Soviet States"? 468
A Large-Scale Cooperative Effort--The Volvo Agreement: Another Unsuccessful Campaign--Toward a Nordic Economic Region?--Europe--Why Did Sweden Reverse Its Policy on Europe?--The Last "Soviet States"?--After Social Democracy: Toward New Social Structures? 484
A Success--but Not Exclusively So--Social Democracy's Liberal Inheritance--The Institutional Structures under Pressure--The Freedom and Rights Revolution--What Kind of Freedom?--High Score--Toward New Structures?--Politics Matter
Bibliography 503
Index 533
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读后感
用户评价
这本书最让我感到震撼的,或许是其对未来预示的隐晦但有力的暗示。它将目光投向了社会民主主义的“黄昏时刻”,但其探讨的终点并非是简单的宣告失败,而是对一种政治理想在当代语境下如何“变形”或“消亡”的深度思考。作者在收尾部分,并没有简单地抛出一个“怎么办”的口号,而是以一种近乎哲学思辨的方式,探讨了在技术爆炸和身份政治日益凸显的今天,传统的阶级动员模式为何失效,以及社民党人在面对新的社会分化时所展现出的集体失语。这种对历史终局的关照,使得全书的基调虽然沉郁,但绝不悲观,而是一种带着深刻洞察力的冷静反思。它迫使我跳出既有的政治框架,重新审视“进步”的定义,并对当前我们所处的这个时代,产生了更为复杂和审慎的认识。
这本书的语言风格简直是一股清流,它成功地摆脱了许多学术著作中常见的那种晦涩和故作高深的窠臼。行文流畅自如,逻辑推进如同水银泻地般自然,即便是对于非专业背景的读者来说,阅读体验也堪称愉悦。作者似乎有一种天赋,能够将极其复杂的经济学模型和繁复的政治博弈,转化为清晰、甚至带有一丝文学性的表达。我特别欣赏他对“黄金时代”的描述,那种带着怀旧色彩却又保持着冷静分析的笔调,让人在阅读时,既能体会到那个时代实现的巨大社会进步所带来的温暖,又能清晰地认识到那些进步是如何以特定的历史条件为代价换取的。它不像某些历史书那样,让你感觉像是在啃一块干涩的骨头,而是更像在品味一壶陈年的佳酿,每一章都有其独特的风味和回甘。这种易读性和深刻性的完美平衡,是极其罕见的,也体现了作者深厚的文字功底和对读者的尊重。
令我感到颇为振奋的是,作者在论述过程中,对不同国家和地区之间社会民主实践的差异性进行了细致入微的比较。他没有将“社会民主主义”视为一个铁板一块的僵化教条,而是将其视为一个在不同地理、文化和政治环境下不断适应、演变和妥协的动态过程。书中对德法两国与英美模式在社会保障体系构建上的根本分歧,有着精妙的对比分析。这种跨国界、跨制度的比较视角,极大地拓宽了我对政治经济学理论的理解边界。通过他的笔触,我清晰地看到,那些看似相似的政策背后,其实隐藏着截然不同的阶级基础、党派战略和意识形态侧重。特别是在探讨社会民主主义如何应对20世纪70年代石油危机时,作者对不同国家政府反应的细微差别捕捉得极为精准,这使得整个历史叙事不再是平面的,而是充满了立体感和张力。
读完这本关于20世纪下半叶社会民主主义兴衰的著作,我最大的感受是作者对于历史脉络的梳理达到了惊人的细致。他不仅仅关注了那些光芒万丈的政治领袖和里程碑式的立法,更深入到了社会结构和文化变迁的底层逻辑。例如,书中对战后“共识政治”的解构,远比教科书上的描述要深刻得多。作者没有满足于简单地罗列福利国家的成就,而是巧妙地将经济周期、工会力量的消长,乃至女性劳动力参与率的提高,编织成一张相互关联的复杂网络。尤其让我印象深刻的是,他对北欧模式的批判性审视,没有陷入意识形态的狂热或盲目贬低,而是精准地指出了其在面对全球化和去工业化时的内在张力与结构性矛盾。书中引用的那些来自地方档案馆和个人回忆录的零散资料,为原本宏大的历史叙事增添了可触摸的温度和鲜活的细节,让人仿佛能真切地听到那个时代工人和企业主在谈判桌上的每一次呼吸和争执。这种多层次的叙事策略,使得整本书读起来既有高屋建瓴的理论高度,又不失田野调查般的扎实感,绝非一般政治史著作可以比拟。
这本书在史料的发掘和运用上,展现出了一种近乎偏执的严谨性。它绝非仅停留在对二手文献的梳理和引用,而是明显投入了大量的精力去挖掘那些尘封的档案和尚未被充分利用的原始材料。我注意到书中多次引用了战后初期工会内部关于工资谈判策略的会议纪要,以及政府部门关于税收改革草案的内部辩论信函。这些细节的引入,使得书中的论证不仅仅是基于宏观趋势的推演,更是建立在扎实的、有时甚至是微观的证据链条之上的。这给予了读者一种极强的信任感——作者所描绘的图景,是经过了多重交叉验证的,是“硬核”的。对于那些热衷于探究历史细节、渴望穿透政治表象直达决策核心的读者来说,这本书无疑是一份令人兴奋的智力盛宴,它满足了我们对历史真实性的最高要求。