Capitalists Against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden

by Peter A. Swenson

Conventional wisdom argues that welfare state builders in the US and Sweden in the 1930s took their cues from labor and labor movements. Swenson makes the startling argument that pragmatic social reformers looked for support not only from below but also from above, taking into account capitalist interests and preferences. Juxtaposing two widely recognized extremes of welfare, the US and Sweden, Swenson shows that employer interests played a role in welfare state development in both countries.

Genres: Political Science, Economics

448 pages, Hardcover

First published September 26, 2002

About the author

Peter A. Swenson is the C. M. Saden Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the author of Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden.