Today, the bibliography gets the addition of four Jacobin articles, published in 2018/2019, all addressing the strengths (and weaknesses) of social democracy.
Three Scandinavians (Andreas Møller Mulvad, Rune Møller Stahl and Kjell Östberg) chronicle the halcyon era of Swedish social democracy (and its failure to transition into democratic socialism) and highlight Denmark’s welfare state as a refutation of superficial American anti-left talking points. Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day continues the Scandinavian theme, arguing that the fetishization of the Danish concept of Hygge ignores the political realities of its country of origin. In a later article, Day challenges the notion that the U.S. possesses a welfare state of any real substance, instead relying on “an elaborate system of tax expenditures intended to facilitate private welfare provision.”
Collectively, the articles offer important insight into the much vaunted social democracies of Scandinavia and, with Day’s second piece, how that form of welfare statism has utterly failed to materialize in the United States.
Mike Passarini 